RPM Revamped
by anyabar1987
Summary: Reuploaded How would RPM look if two of your favorite characters switched roles?
1. Chapter 1

"You can call me Lacy." I can't believe that I just said that name. I have no idea who I am or where I am from, only what I am doing. I am going to Corinth city. I had been driving around in circles for months raiding gas tank after gas tank out here in the wastelands. I didn't know my real name but somehow Lacy just slipped off my tongue.

I look over to the passenger seat where a guy I had just met sat. We were running what he called the Venjix barricade. I didn't know exactly what or who this Venjix was but I was guessing it was tied into all the killer robots I had been killing, usually whenever I had to stop my car for something.

This man who calls himself Flynn is quite strange himself. He has a Corinth city ID card but won't tell me what he is doing out here in the middle of nowhere. I don't think he entirely trusts me and he certainly has his rights about that. I mean I am currently running my car full speed into something that is apparently very lethal. But then again I don't trust him either; he tried to convince me that a muffler pipe was a gun. He tried to steal my car! My car! For crying out loud this car is the only thing I own and it isn't even that much, just a rundown Junker that I managed to find in my early days out here.

"Well Lacy, it was nice knowing you." Flynn responded as if to almost say, 'Of course you wait till this moment of imminent death to tell me your name'.

"Hand me that last charge." I asked him as I pointed to the last explosive at his feet. I watched as he picked up the charge and accidently activated it. As I recalculated how hard I would have to throw it I hit the brakes unexpectedly and he let go of it to have it fell into the back seat.

"That isn't good is it?" he asked me as he looked at me in a panic.

I did another calculation and looked at where it landed. Timing how long we had till it went off I performed a tricky maneuver. The maneuver was successful in throwing the charge from the car but even more unexpectedly was that it did the best possible thing and hit the barricade as well. I was grinning from ear to ear as a huge hole appeared in the wall.

Without another thought I drove right through the wall and up to the gate. Someone must have been watching because the gate opened as we drove up to it. Once inside my car finally hit its last straw. I had had just enough gas to get me into Corinth city and for that I was so grateful.

"Odin's beard, we made it!" Flynn turned around as he pinched himself to make sure he was alive.

"We made it but we aren't safe yet." I replied as I turned around to look at what followed us into the city. I was about to open my car door and kick the invaders' butts back out of what was supposed to be a safe haven for humanity when three people about my age came running past my car.

"Lacy, just relax you are inside Corinth now. We are safe, let the power rangers deal with the intruders." He looked at me and smiled before putting his feet on my dashboard.

I watched for quite awhile, "Power rangers?" I asked after a bit.

"Yes, just watch them. I nearly considered trying out but I have a bad streak with those types of jobs. I am just meant to be a mechanic, like my Dad was and the same with my Granddad." He nodded slowly as he watched the three people fight, "You might make a good power ranger, you should see if they are accepting anymore applications."

"What do the power rangers do?"

"Well they work for this mysterious person, no one saw him enter the city and no one, not even the rangers, know what he looks like. He has these incredible tools that the rangers use to keep the city safe from the occasional breaches Venjix makes. The city constantly has to rotate having the shields down because coils burn out and such. So there are the three of them to protect the city when that happens." Flynn described.

Just then the rangers pulled a device from their pockets and did something to cause them to glow. When the glow stopped they were different. They were armored up and ready to fight harder than they had been.

"Yes that is the best part about the rangers, their awesome uniforms." Flynn grinned, "I think you would be a good ranger."

"I will think about it. I need to get my life in order first and do some soul searching. I don't know if I told you but Lacy isn't my real name."

"I knew you really didn't seem like a Lacy." He laughed back

"I don't know my name. Lacy is the name on a keychain I found when I found this car. So for the time being call me Lacy." I looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.

"So you mean to say you have amnesia?" he laughed, "I was just brought back to the city by an amnesiac. That is just crazy."

"It might be crazy but it is life." I smiled but let it melt very quickly when I saw what the robots were up to. "Flynn we have to do something, they are going to do something to the yellow ranger." I jumped out of the car knowing that I wouldn't be able to start the car fast enough. I could however jump them and at least give the rangers the advantage on this.

I jumped on the primary robot and twisted its head off before kicking it to the ground. I made what I thought to be a good show of destroying those things. I had destroyed enough of them out in the wastelands to know I could slow them down by a lot.

After the rangers had finished with what they had been doing the yellow ranger ran over to me and took her helmet off. "Thank you, I don't know who you are but they almost had me there. Where did you learn to fight?" she asked with a huge smile as she looked into my eyes.

"I don't know where I learned to fight. It has just come very naturally to me." That wasn't a lie, it was the truth. I didn't know how I knew half the stuff I was able to do but till I had met Flynn a few hours ago, I had thought I was normal but now I was questioning, maybe there was something strange about me after all.

I looked at the yellow ranger and it looked like she was about to say something however she was pushed out of the way by a bunch of people in military uniforms. I thought they were coming for me however they surrounded Flynn who had at some point come to stand by me. I was forced to watch in horror as they arrested him before turning on me.

"You're under arrest for being an accomplice to this menace." I willingly, not wanting to make any trouble, let them handcuff me. I was ready to break their necks though, I was a newcomer to this city and I only wanted to make a life for myself. Maybe it would have been better if I had taken my chances in the wastelands.

RPM

I sat and glared at Flynn; the both of us now sported matching uniforms and were sharing a cell in the underground prison of Corinth city. "So do you care to tell me what we are doing in jail?"

"Well, umm, the reason I was outside the walls of Corinth was because I was on the run. I made an attempt at being a cop and a fireman as well as a few other occupations outside the walls of this city. Well I have this habit of winding up in very bad situations. So my father brought me with him to Corinth as long as I promised to stay out of trouble. I minded myself for most of this last year working as one of his mechanics however I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got myself framed by one of the cartels for blowing up one of the old storage facilities." He explained which made me sympathize with him just a little bit.

I could understand being misunderstood for some reason. Oh yeah, that was because I was just accused of being his accomplice and so far no one had listened to me. I was getting mad and I didn't think anyone wanted to see me mad. Heck I had only seen myself mad at those stupid robots and that never ended well for any of them. But I wouldn't hurt Flynn; he had gotten me to the city when I had been driving myself in circles

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to find a way to expel my anger. They opened our cell and let us walk to dinner. I had noticed that I was the only woman in this particular unit and the answer to that was I was just being held temporarily and the women's ward was full. So they put me in the one cell that they could watch me in. Unfortunately, it was in the Men's ward.

At dinner a few of the prisoners made some gestures to me that definitely angered me more. Those were not gestures you made to a woman and even I knew that. Just one gesture would have been enough to knock me over the edge but with all of them combined, let's just say for the sake of it, it caused me to turn into a killing machine. I was careful not to kill them, just severely hurt them where it counted to make them think twice about how they used their minds.

I had evidently been so quick that the guard who was standing outside the door didn't even know what was going on till I was sitting back in my seat eating my dinner while all the other prisoners writhed in pain on the floor.

I was taken to what they called solitary confinement. This room was little more than a cage in the middle of the ward. Once I was in the room someone came up to me with a scanner. They told me it was standard procedure for registration into the city so I shrugged and held out my arms. I wanted to become a citizen even if I was going to spend most of it in their prison system for beating up the entire male population.

When they finished I put my arms down to utter silence as all the guards around me just stared. "What?" I eyed them.

"You are aware you have Venjix technology all through your body young lady?"

I gasped, "Venjix… Isn't that the computer virus that everyone is talking about?" I couldn't believe that what they were saying. I wasn't a machine, I ate and I drank… I even slept, I did a few other things that from my knowledge were pretty human as well but I doubted they wanted to know about them.

"Yes it is. I am sure it is a mistake on the scanners part but we are going to have to take several precautions just to be on the safe side." The soldier said as he shook his head.

"Of course, do whatever you need to. I don't mean you any harm." I nodded accepting whatever was going to need to be done. I however was not expecting to be chained to a chair while they did further tests. Someone came and cut a lock of my hair and another took a swab of skin from my mouth. I was completely willing with them and never postured my body.

I got my reward for good behavior when the yellow ranger came into my cell and sat on the other side of a table that was placed in front of me. She smiled sadly at me and placed an item in front of me.

"This was found in your car. I thought it looked pretty important and I wanted to thank you for the help back there. My name is Summer by the way." She slid the item over the table it was my watch, the only item I had had with me when I had woken up in the middle of a sand dune.

"I don't know my name, though I am having people call me Lacy." I replied with a nod, "I just want to get on with my life."

"Look I will see what I can do about getting you out of here. I owe you for back there." Summer nodded as she stood up.

RPM

I waited for three days and while I waited my good behavior paid off because, while I was not allowed out of my cell and my meals were brought to me, I was unchained and allowed to move around my cage. The other men could see me and I found out that all I had to do was walk to the side closest to them and stand there, the result was that they cowered. They feared me and it was actually kind of exciting to know I had that kind of power over all the men in this prison.

Summer didn't return for those three days but when I did see her she came followed by two men who had their arms crossed and watched me while they were introduced.

"Lacy, I would like you to meet our blue ranger Ziggy…"

"Ziggy Grover, nice to meet you I saw your work out there and was very impressed." The blue ranger threw himself all over the place in front of me. I just raised an eyebrow and looked at Summer who shrugged.

"And this is our team leader Scott." Summer nodded pointing to the man wearing the red highlighted jacket.

"Nice to meet you Lacy, Summer here says some good things about you, though I am not one to believe it till I can see it." Scott looked me in the eye as if judging me.

"So umm, nice to see you again Summer, but I have to ask is this just stand around and gawk at me hour?" I shook my head confused

"No, I promised to find you a way out of this cell and I always follow through on my promises. I have talked the guys into giving you a chance to try out to be a power ranger with us." Summer said with all seriousness.

"You have to be kidding me." I threw my arms in the air and walked in a circle before turning back. "But what if I say no?"

"You stay in this cell, in solitary confinement till they have findings that say otherwise. And right now it isn't looking good on your case with the Venjix hardware in your body." Scott crossed his arms.

"So if I say yes I am free to be with you till they make this finding and then I am back here?" I shake my head trying to understand.

"No if you say yes, you are to be released permanently to Dr. K's care. You will have to live at the garage with us and agree to any testing he might want to perform on you, to find out the extent of the machinery in you." Scott replied with a glint in his eye.

"Oh, so it is either life behind bars or life as a guinea pig while just happening to candidate as a power ranger. I really don't know which one I am going to choose." I told them sarcastically as I sat down in the chair bolted to the floor of my cell.

"Lacy, Scott was being slightly unfair with the guinea pig statement. Dr. K isn't a bad person, he just has made this consent to try and help understand you. You will have pretty much free roam of the city as well as your car is being moved to the garage as we speak." Summer glared at Scott before looking at me.

"Can I think about it for tonight?" I ask as I look at all three of them.

Scott shrugged, "I guess we can wait till the morning though we will be here bright and early."

Summer grinned, "Oh Lacy, I know you will make the right choice."

I paced my cell the rest of the day and thought deeply about the choice. The way Summer put the deal sounded a lot better than Scott's wording but Scott's wording scared me and I didn't know if I would want to risk it.

I thought I had made my mind up till I was sitting there eating my dinner when Flynn walked past my cell on his way back to his. One glance at his face made me see just how terrible he looked; he was innocent but because these cartels were so powerful he was as good as dead. Something Summer had said made me think they might be open to negotiation. Flynn had mentioned to me that he had thought about trying out to be a ranger. Maybe he could be a ranger after all, if they were willing to take me and by the sound of it this Dr. K really wanted to examine me so maybe if he wanted me this badly he would also take Flynn.

By the time lights out in the prison was announced I was already lying on my cot staring at the ceiling. I counted the hours of the night and slept for a short while but woke rested, this was the first time I had counted my sleep and realized that I only slept for about half the time of all the other inmates. However, my night was not boring even though I stayed in bed I kept my mind busy and listened to the music from my pocket watch for a little while.

Just as the lights went on I started to get a flash on something. It was too fuzzy for me to make out and the lights chased away any hindering of the brief vision. Just as Scott had said they were standing in front of my cell even before I had picked myself up off the cot.

"Lacy have you made your decision yet?" Summer asked softly not wanting to be too loud this early in the morning.

"Possibly but I want to you to think about something. If I leave this cell I want you to promise to get Flynn out of here." I crossed my arms over my chest and stared Scott down.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You want us to do what?" Scott crossed his arms.

"If I leave this cell, then you have to take Flynn as well." I say cockily back to him.

"You're aware that the person you are negotiating a release for blew up a building, a building that had innocent people in it?" Ziggy gasped.

"I have heard that but I don't believe it, he told me his story, he has always been misunderstood and I believe his story. I think that whatever is in me if there is anything in me has the ability to act as a lie detector because that man in there couldn't hurt a fly." I uncross my arms and changed my stance but something I either did or said must have pushed Scott over the edge because he shook his head.

"Look I will see what I can do. I can't promise you anything on his case, will you come with us till then or are you saying no to the whole deal." Scott sighed as he showed that he had the key to my cell in his hands.

"I guess I will go with you, but you have to promise to try your hardest to get Flynn out of here or I will march myself right back into this cell." I smirked as I eyed the cell door.

Scott went to unlock the cell door but as he did so he whispered into Summer's ear, "I sure hope you are right about this girl."

RPM

The rangers escorted me to their base which Summer had called The Garage. I was surprised to find that it really was a garage. My car was sitting parked inside right next to a shiny red racecar and a black jeep, both cars looked like they had cost a pretty penny and put my car to shame ten times over. The only redeeming factor to my car was the motorcycle that was parked in front of it. Unlike the two cars it looked used, while still looking nice and new it looked very used and loved.

"So this is the garage where we all live. This part is the garage and it also serves as our living space, we have a kitchen towards the back as well as a small sitting area. We also have a pool table and quite a few selections of games available to us." Summer pointed out the back half of the garage, "Then there is the front half which is where we keep our cars, as promised we brought your car in and you will find that it has been gassed up."

Scott pointed to the red car, "the racecar is mine, you don't ever touch it or I will personally hunt you down and kill you."

"Ok, I get the picture, not that I would want to mess up your showroom car." I stated before asking, "Whose car is the jeep?"

"Well the jeep doesn't have an owner yet, it was donated anonymously to be given to whoever wields the black morpher but that person hasn't been found yet." Ziggy shrugged, "though I have driven it a few times."

"So when do I meet this Dr. K? I was under the impression that he wanted to start doing tests on me as soon as possible." I looked around but didn't see anyone else in immediate sight.

"Well that is a sort of interesting thing because even we don't know what Dr. K looks like; we communicate with him through this computer screen over here." Summer led the way to a flat screen monitor that had a huge K rotating on the screen.

"Welcome, I am Dr. K." the screen said as I walked up to the screen.

"This is completely and utterly insane you do realize this don't you?" I turned around and looked at the others, "You are all afraid of a computer virus that exists outside these walls but yet the three of you take orders from a computer screen yourselves? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just go back to my cell right now?"

"I can assure you that I am completely alive and real, I just for reasons that are not important prefer not to show myself at this time. Now let me show you what you are wanted for."

I jumped as doors next to where I stood opened into a huge room filled with various machines, "Summer has convinced me to candidate you for the position as Series operator ranger green. If you pass the tests then you will take on the responsibilities of green ranger as well as allowing me to run tests on you and find out exactly what you are." The voice surrounded me as I walked into the laboratory.

"I understand and I am ready so long as Scott agrees to keep his end of the bargain." I acknowledge the voice as I look back at Scott.

"I know I know and I have submitted the request with the jail warden. I have a meeting with him later this morning." Scott glared back

I smiled and nodded while tucking my hair behind my ear. it was the first time I had paid my hair any notice as in the jail cell it was just down and in my face, I hadn't had any hair ties for it and I still didn't but I thought it better that my hair was out of my face. I had chosen to stay in my prison jump suit because I still wasn't entirely sure I was staying out here or going back to my cell.

"Give me your worst Dr. K." I grin which probably was my first mistake as no sooner had I said that then I was guided by Summer to a chair in the middle of the room.

When my testing was over I walked over to where Summer, Scott and Ziggy were talking. "So how did I do?"

"How did you do!?" Ziggy jumped, "You were incredible, your test scores were higher then the three of ours combined."

Scott placed a hand on Ziggy's shoulder, "That though isn't too hard considering that Ziggy just barely passed his tests."

"So I passed?" I asked eyeing Scott

"Yes you passed." Summer grinned, "Welcome to the team Lacy!"

"Wait a minute if she formally accepts she can't go back to that cell, the bonding is permanent and we couldn't risk losing the morpher to her just up and deciding she is too good for us." Scott blocked Summer.

I hung my head and took a deep breath, "I accept but this doesn't mean you are off the hook about getting Flynn out of jail. I owe it to him, he got me here, and without him I would still be circling the wastelands looking for Corinth, possibly on foot."

"If you accept then we will proceed with the DNA bonding immediately." Dr. K's voice boomed out from a speaker close to where we stood.

"Alright tell me what to do and I will do it." I sighed as I looked toward the green ranger uniform and as I stepped up on a turn table I felt a strange sensation wrap around my wrist. When I looked down I had a morpher on my wrist and after getting instructions from Dr. K I activated the morpher letting the power wrap around me.

I was only in my new form for a few seconds when I heard some clapping. I turned around to see Flynn standing there surrounded by a couple of guards. The guards stepped back and left the lab as I stepped down from the table and ran over to him. "Flynn!" I exclaimed as I pressed a button to remove my helmet.

"Lacy! Wow I never would have thought that you would be the green ranger." He took my gloved hands and gazed into my eyes, "I also heard that I owe my freedom to you."

I turned to Scott, "Thank you so much Scott, Flynn won't let you down, you have my word."

"We'll see about that." Scott shook his head.

I demorphed to Summer handing me a change of clothes and a jacket. "Come with me and I will show you to our room."

"This has to be my best day yet." I giggled as I followed Summer up the stairs and across the balcony to her room, our room.

"Well here we are. Your bed is the one by the window." Summer pointed out the bed on the far side of the room.

"Would it be possible for me to have the other bed? I don't sleep the full eight hours so I think the bed by the door would be better for the both of us, I can slip out without waking you up when I get up." I plead.

"Well we can always reorganize the room; the beds aren't nailed to the ground you know." Summer laughed. "I will leave you to get changed. We can work on the reorganization later when we have free time this evening. I think Dr. K wants to talk to you and Scott, Ziggy and I are to go out on a patrol."

"Oh yay! The guinea pig testing starts right away," I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Hey don't think that way; I am sure he just wants to train you. we all had to have sit down meetings with Dr. K and discuss our powers and our power potential." Summer smirked and shook her head with a chuckle. "I will be back in a few hours, behave yourself and play nice with the Dr."

I got changed and ran downstairs with a glance to my pocket watch. I knew there was something I was forgetting but I didn't know what.

"hey there pretty lass!" Flynn greeted me as I walked down the stairs. "So what do you know about this talk we have to have with the Dr?"

"You were asked to talk with him too?" I look at him puzzled, "I thought it was going to be about my new job as a ranger."

"It is. Ranger operator series green, I would like to discuss with you some of your expectations but I wanted to give your friend this." The computer screen came to life causing the both of us to jump.

Flynn reached over to a printer and pulled out a piece of paper. "Sweet mother Molasses' what is this?"

"Your chore sheet! The part of the deal that let you out was that you worked for me. I don't have too many jobs for you right now so those will have to do."

"Yes I can understand chores but washing the garage floor with a toothbrush? That isn't a chore! It is a punishment." Flynn gasped shaking his head in disbelief.

"If you have a problem with it, you can always go back to the prison. Your release wasn't permanent like ranger operator series green's has become." The voice taunted and I wanted to punch the screen to teach the Dr a lesson.

"Ranger green I can see from the way you are holding yourself what you must be thinking and I will inform you that it will be a stupid futile move that would have no lasting consequence other then to possibly injure your hand."

I dropped my fist that had been forming and glared at the computer screen.

"Ranger green please have a seat and talk to me. I just want to know a bit about you as a person today."

"You mean like a psych exam? You want to find out how my mind works." I roll my eyes

"Not necessarily, I don't care what you do with your life I just want to know I have entrusted the right person to the job."

"A little late for that fact seeing as I have already permanently bonded with the green morpher isn't it?"

Summer came back and saved me just in time from more of Dr. K's lectures and theories which were starting to put me to sleep. It was funny, for someone who apparently required less sleep then other people being put to sleep as easily as if I were normal.

Flynn surprised the other rangers though upon their entering the building with a fresh cooked dinner.

Ziggy looked at it and raised an eyebrow, "You didn't poison it did you?"

"No, I wouldn't do that. Food is to be respected; I would never do anything to harm people through food, not that I would even purposefully hurt anyone." Flynn exclaimed

I came over after they all had taken their fill and took my food but sat there and stared at the plate more then anything.

"Lacy, what is up?" Flynn asked as he sat next to me, "I thought you would be so happy, you and I are out of jail, we are free to start our lives here in Corinth city."

"I am fine, Flynn. I just have been so busy that this is a reality breaker for me, I am in Corinth city, I am safe and I don't have to run anymore." I stood up, "But Flynn I just can't, not right now, we need to just stay friends."

"What! Where was that coming from?" he looked at me as I stood up and took my food to one of the couches that was not being used.

I heard Ziggy comment, "Oo burn, Flynn, you should take some lessons from the Ziggmeister."

"No thanks, Ziggy, I would rather stay out of jail. It was just a misunderstanding I am thinking." Flynn watched as I sat down.

After we ate Summer and I went to our room and reorganized the room so that we both had our beds in ideal places in the room. My bed was by the door and Summer had her bed facing the direction she wanted it to.

"Tomorrow if we get some time we should go out and buy you some new clothes. You can't keep wearing that one pair of jeans forever; they are going to get disgusting." Summer eyed my outfit after realizing that I had nothing in my drawers while hers were practically overflowing. I wouldn't have been too surprised if before I had moved in, she had had my drawers filled with clothes as well.

"Come on, we have about two hours till we are supposed to hit the sack. Why don't you come downstairs and hang out?" Summer asked as she went to the door."

"Sure, "I stood up and walked down stairs. Flynn was on his knees washing the floor and Ziggy and Scott were playing pool.

"Hey Scott, Ziggy why don't we play doubles?" Summer asked as she grabbed one of the spare pool cues. And threw it at me. "Girls vs. Guys."

"Alright we are game if Lacy is game." Scott said after glancing at Ziggy who nodded.

"Oh I have game, the question is do you think you can keep up?" I smirked as Ziggy pulled all the balls in and reset the table.

"Summer why don't you break?" Scott asked after Ziggy had stepped away.

I watched as Summer took a shot and pocketed two Solid balls.

"Pretty good shot, You could have gotten one more if you had just slipped a little more to the left though." I responded as Scott took a turn in which he got in a stripe.

I eyed the table and after calculating my chances went for a ball that I heard Scott scoff at. I showed him though when I twisted the cue ball around the table knocking in three solid balls.

"Whoa impressive." Ziggy commented as he went for his shot.

The boys ended up catching up with Ziggy's turn but between Summer's next turn and my turn after Scott's we still left them in the dust.

Scott shook his head, "Lacy you are impressive. I assume though you are going to tell us that you don't remember where you learned to play pool?"

"Pretty much. I just watched all of your turns and then calculated my hits based on my observations of how the game worked."

"You mean to tell me that this is the first time you have played pool that you know of?" Summer turned to me, "We should totally enter the pool championship down at the city rec hall later this month. You and I would be unstoppable."

"I will think about it, do you guys want to play again?" I ask as I reached for the triangle.

"Uh how about not right now, having our rears handed to us once this evening is quite enough." Scott scoffed, "Why don't we play a game that you can't possibly use any calculations on to beat us at."

Ziggy did some math, "So that puts Monopoly and any trivia based game out of the question."

Summer looked at the shelf of games, "how about Clue? It is completely random and there is no way lacy could know the outcome before we do. Unless of course she has x-ray vision."

Ziggy looked at me, "You don't have X-ray vision do you?" he shivered a little bit in his boots.

"No! that would just be creepy." I went and took the game they were talking about down from the shelf.

Scott took the game from me. And looked at the three of us. "Just to be certain…" he took the cards out and went over to Flynn. "Could you pick the cards?"

"Sure." Flynn said looking my way in which I returned the gesture by looking in the opposite direction.

An hour later and I had played my best I could at this game which there wasn't really much for me to take advantage of it the game. It was all about the questions you asked and the answers other players gave you back. I managed to find the answers but not before Ziggy solved the puzzle.

Summer decided she was going to bed so I followed her up to the room but I lay in my bed and just stared at the ceiling. It was too early for me to actually sleep but I needed the quiet time that the darkness would provide to think about the burst of a vision I had had just before wake up that morning. It wasn't long before I heard Summer go into a very steady sleep and from the sound of her breathing it sounded like it was a very deep sleep.

Reaching to the table by my bed a pulled the pocket watch close and wound it up hoping the sound would relax enough to allow me to fall asleep. Maybe with the work out I had had via my testing I would be able to sleep longer. It was something I had never really tested out before because in the wastelands I had never even paid attention to what time it was, I just let myself fall asleep and sometimes I now realize I had gone three or four days without even closing my eyes.

The music did indeed allow me to drift off to sleep but now I have that vision stuck in my head. I can tell you that it is the same one as the one I had had before only this time I saw it much more clearly. My hand is reaching out to another hand that is grabbing onto mine. I feel I was saying something but I can't be completely certain but the only other thing I saw was a pair of eyes. The eyes just stared into me, they looked afraid however something wasn't right about the eyes, whether it was the color I couldn't be certain, they were a pale almost translucent blue.

I ran downstairs needing to get some fresh air when it hit me; those eyes were significant because I had left someone out there in the wastelands. I needed to find them and I needed to find them now; all rational thought left my normally level head.

Flynn was sitting on a couch half asleep having scrubbed most of the floors when I shook him. "Flynn I need to know of a way out of the city."

"Whoa, why do you want out? wouldn't that be breaking your bail?" Flynn jumped up and looked me in my eyes.

"I can't explain it but I need out and I need out now." I paced before looking at the line up of cars. My car was parked behind Summer's bike making it impossible to get at without potentially making a racket that could wake the others.

"Well I do believe they vent waste gases from station nineteen at dawn. You could get out through there however there is only 2 seconds between burn offs."

"That will do." I ran over and grabbed Scott's keys. I had promised never to touch it and I was about to break that promise but I didn't care, I needed to go and find whoever it was I had left in the wastelands.

"Lacy!" Flynn ran over to me and I looked up at him, "Please be careful, I owe you too much."

"I will try to." I smiled up at Flynn and it was all I could to resist kissing his cheek. I was growing to like him and I knew he liked me as well. But it was better that we didn't go too far, I had no idea who that person in my vision was, for all I knew it could have been my partner or someone equally as close to me.

I peeled out of the garage and wound my way through the streets to find station nineteen. I turned on the radio only to be surprised by the coding that was supposed to lead a wayward traveler right to Corinth City. the repeating geographical locations was soothing to me as it had been the only voice I had had for weeks on end. When I made it to Station nineteen the burns were already in progress.

I was getting ready to push through the gate when my radio was replaced with the sound of the other rangers calling for help. It would have figured that Scott would have his pretty car set up to receive any ranger transmissions. I was ready to ignore the broadcast however at the last minute I decided that I should go and help them with whatever they were fighting.

When I drove up and saw the others fighting the robots, which I had been informed, were called Grinders while a monster rampaged through the city harbor, one of the few places Corinth had for pretty scenery. I sat there for a minute and counted the grinders before climbing out of the car and activating my morpher.

"Lacy if I find a scratch in that car you are so dead!" Scott yelled as he wrestled down five grinders.

I ignored him as morphed, "Scott, you take Ziggy and Summer and get that monster; I can take down these guys." I looked around at the stampede of grinders surrounding me before I get to work; I did just what I had always done in the wastelands only I found the suit made it easier. I could have finished off twice as many grinders then what was sent my way. And to irk Scott more I let the waste pile up all over his car, it was a casualty of war and there was nothing I could have done to prevent that, it is not like he could blame me for scratching his car.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Dr. K had me get on the tread mill in his lab and Summer helped me link up to the computer so that the Dr could monitor me from where ever it was he watched and communicated with us from. I was to run at the fastest pace I felt I could maintain for the longest amount of time.

When I was linked up Summer stepped back to where Scott and Ziggy stood. Flynn was busy cleaning something or other in the garage part of the building. I had been here acting as the Green ranger for two days and abiding every rule in my book which meant I allow Dr. K to study my unique abilities.

I keyed up the treadmill and began to do a very fast jog however that became boring so I sped it up so that I was running a very fast sprint. I watched my heart rate stay very steady and regular and my breathing didn't grow irregular. I was going at this speed for a good while until the treadmill began to cool down and forced me to stop.

"Ranger Green that will be enough for today." Dr K's voice came from a speaker somewhere off to my side.

"I still feel like I could do another two laps at least." I replied as I grabbed my water bottle and stepped off the treadmill.

"It is like you are the bionic woman!" A thick Scottish accent came from over by the door.

"I am sorry, who?" I laughed as I looked at Flynn.

"Wait you mean to tell me, you have a bunch of random data in your head and can figure out a game of pool just by watching us one turn but yet you don't know who the bionic woman was?" Ziggy exclaimed, "She is unbelievable."

"No, should I?" I looked at Scott and Summer slightly confused.

"Ziggy I don't think her knowledge works that way, it isn't wasted on fictional characters." Summer came to stand next to me. "Lacy, you barely even broke a sweat!"

"Not only that but her heart rate is still within very normal limits. As if she had just done a light jog around the room." Dr. K's voice announced having reviewed the data, and I realized I was still hooked up to the computer, "she has already gone back to a resting heart rate."

I smiled as I took another swig of my water.

"Ranger Green will you please lay down on the examination table? I would like to run one more test on you right now, it may help me understand some of these scores."

I raised an eyebrow but disconnected from the treadmill computer and went to lay down on the table Dr. K had indicated by his voice moving from one speaker to another.

Once I had lain down a bright light scanned over my body repeatedly. And on the screen my skeletal image appeared. "Ranger Operator series Green I am reading five percent Venjix hardware spread throughout your body ranging from your head down to your hips. I am going to have to study this some more because alone you have such minute amounts that theoretically speaking it shouldn't have as big of an impact on your body as it appears it does."

"Ok so that just confirms the case that I must naturally be a freak, I must have been able to do abnormal things even before I wound up with this technology implanted inside me." I sat up and scanned over the findings.

"I will have to study these read outs some more. Rangers, why don't you go take your lunch break while I work on this some more. After lunch rangers Red, Blue, and Yellow will proceed over to the audition hall, Colonel Truman has arranged for the final audition for the last place on the ranger team. With the apparent step up in Venjix's attacks we need to get the team to full strength. Also in order to release ranger Green's Zord, ranger black has to come on line."

"What about me?" I asked which I knew would be dumb question.

"Ranger green I would like to go over some more of your training." Dr. K responded

"Oh yay, some more testing!" I was seriously getting tired of the testing by this point but I had promised to be good natured about it all. Flynn was the only one here who knew just how explosive I could get though I guess Dr. K had some idea after the last time I had attempted to punch his computer screen.

"This will not be more testing, not this time, instead I want you to practice and demonstrate your special ability." The voice said before the speaker shut off and the screen went into standby mode, there was no more communicating with Dr. K right now, he had gone off line for the time being.

I stormed out of the lab following the others. I wanted to see some action, and why couldn't I have a say in our new teammate? The others made themselves comfortable at the counter, while Flynn went and pulled the ingredients for lunch out of the refrigerator.

"I made chicken salad out of the chicken from last night's dinner." Flynn announced as he set the bowl in front of us. He had set aside doing his cleaning chores to start cooking us dinner and because he was doing such a good job at it Dr. K had begun letting him do it for every meal. Apparently before Flynn and I arrived the rangers had just been making their own meals and they hadn't been the healthiest meals they could have had.

"Lacy?" Flynn asked me and I realized I had zoned out.

"What Flynn?" I asked not really in the mood for his friendly banter.

"What would you like with your chicken salad?"

"Whatever, I'm not really hungry." That turned out to be the worst thing I could have said because a few minutes later I had not only a sandwich but one of Flynn's special smoothies being pushed across the counter towards me.

"It looks like you could use some Flynn cheer." Flynn looked into my eyes as he slid the smoothie towards me, "Drink up."

"Thanks Flynn," I said a little more optimistic.

Flynn nodded as he made his own lunch and sat on the stool on that side of the counter.

"Lacy this training is going to be a cinch; you can't be as bad as Ziggy was when he was learning to use his special power. He teleported himself right into a bank and got himself arrested." Summer laughed.

"Hey, I would like to see you teleport your body!" Ziggy protested. "It wasn't all that easy you know."

I laughed at Ziggy, "I am sure I could do it, it is just a mind over matter technique. In theory it is pretty easy."

"Oh and how would you know? Have you ever teleported yourself?" Ziggy asked leaning into my face.

"No, but I am imagining what it would be like." I pushed him out of my face and picked up my smoothie.

"Imagining and calculating may work for you playing pool Lacy but sometimes there are other things needed beside your two fields of expertise." Scott shook his head as he said this to me.

"So do you know what my special ability is?" I looked each of them over but none of them had an idea. Summer looked like she could have been thinking but she didn't say anything so I just dismissed it and once done with my lunch went back to the Lab where I found Dr. K was back online.

"Ranger Green power up your morpher please." I followed suit and stepped up on the turn table where he normally had me stand for things like this. As my suit powered up Dr. K explained about the suit's special powers.

"So let me get this straight, theoretically I should be able to shield myself from any attack for five seconds?" I heaved a deep sigh while focusing my mind, "Alright let's try this." I nodded and powered up my shield however I was caught completely off guard by the blaster coming up beside me and shooting me.

This went on for a few times and I was beginning to get discouraged in my ability to protect myself.

"Ranger Green, you need to have faith in the shield." Dr. K's voice echoed out over the lab.

"Yeah, yeah, I am trying to but I can't seem to prepare myself in time for your attacks." I sighed as I picked myself up and readied myself for another attack. However before I could the communicator from the other rangers powered up and Scott's voice came out into the room.

"Hey Doc, we think we may have found the perfect person for the position as black ranger. I am uploading to you his file and his test results."

"He looks good, I will send Flynn over with the morpher in just a few moments and you can proceed with the DNA bonding."

"Hey what about me? This is my teammate you are talking about, I should be going over there and greeting him as well shouldn't I?" I protested

"You need to finish your training ranger green. By the time they begin phase one with this new ranger, I need you fully trained." Dr. K responded by lowering the blaster to my level and shooting at me again. This time I was able to repel it for about a second before I allowed my shield to give in.

I had just picked myself up when Flynn came running in. "I heard you needed me to run an errand for you Dr. K?" he announced

"Yes Flynn against my better judgment I want you to take the black morpher over to where the other rangers are so that they can begin stage one." The black morpher appeared on the floor and Flynn snatched it up.

"Alright Doc I will protect this with my life, you can count on me." Flynn started for the door

"Hey Flynn, the center where they are is all the way across town, you can take my car, the keys are on the rack by the lab door." I called out to Flynn with a smile on my face even though he couldn't see it.

"Actually Flynn, this is relating to the Black ranger so you can also deliver the jeep to them as well."

Flynn smiled and shrugged towards me before grabbing the jeep keys.

"Ranger green let's try this one more time." I sighed as I powered up my morpher for the shield one last time in attempt to succeed I put all my effort into it however it evidently wasn't good enough because I still went flying.

"Ranger Green you will need to keep working on this however your energy levels are dropping so you need to power down for a few hours to go back to full strength." Dr. K said sounding very irritated.

I powered down however no sooner had I done so then Flynn had activated his communicator, "Umm so you know that perfect Black ranger candidate?"

"Yes?" Dr. K sounded irritated still

"Well it turns out that this guy is the real deal when talking about Venjix attack bots. It is a good thing that this jeep is such a sturdy vehicle because he is currently trying to break in and steal the morpher."

"Flynn hold him off, I will be there in a moment." I shook my head as I headed for the key rack.

"Well if you could hurry Lacy, this guy is different from all other attack bots."

"How so?" Dr. K inquired

"Well for one thing he is absolutely enjoying this; it is almost like he is playing a game with me."

I jumped into my car before peeling out of the garage as fast as my car would let me go. By the time I found Flynn he had abandoned the jeep and was running up and down the stadium steps of the race track.

I got out of my car, "Hey ugly, why don't you pick a fight with someone else? Or are you afraid to fight a girl?" I taunted him.

It worked because he came at me and I blocked him, "I will let you know I am quite scrappy, I took down an entire prison ward in under a minute."

He smiled at me from under a dark visor as we fought, "You have had upgrades."

"Yeah so what if I have!" I pushed him back, "My name is Lacy but you can call me Ranger Operator Series Green."

"I am Drake generation seven Venjix attack bot. it is a shame you didn't finish your upgrades." He grinned maliciously.

"I am happy enough, thank you very much." I responded as I spun out and activated my morpher, however when I did that Drake refocused his attack back to Flynn.

"Lacy help me!" Flynn was wrestling the morpher out of Drake's hand.

I ran over and pulled Drake from Flynn's space, "Flynn do whatever you can to keep that morpher safe. You said you would protect it with your life."

"Yes, but that was different, I never thought I would literally have to protect it with my life." He stressed the word life. "I mess everything up remember, I couldn't do something like that."

"Sometimes Flynn we have to do something completely stupid to actually succeed." I growled as Drake attempted to break away from me. "I read your file the other night; I know that the day you were accused of blowing up the building you had been on your way to apply to be the blue ranger. Scott saw it to, I am pretty sure he will forgive you if you bond with that thing. Just protect that morpher."

I pushed Drake around the track and glared at his visor, "You should just go back to your master because you aren't going to succeed here."

Drake got away from me and charged towards Flynn one more time. This time Flynn threw the morpher onto his wrist and pressed a button. He changed just before Drake grabbed onto him.

"Nice try, but I don't think so this belongs to the rangers and not to Venjix." Flynn pushed Drake back when the ground started to shake.

"You may have won the rights to the morpher. But my master will win this war." Drake laughed as he backed off and disappeared.

"Flynn lets go, there is another attack bot in the city." I raced towards the source of the tremors knowing that was where I would find the bot.

"Lacy, shouldn't we wait for the others? I haven't even been trained and I don't know if they even really want me keeping this thing." Flynn sulked as he ran behind me.

"There is nothing they can do about it, you are the black ranger, and there is no way to take back the morpher once it is bonded with someone." I said as we ran. "Just follow my lead and you will do fine."

As we arrived to the location so did Red, Blue and Yellow. And after a short attack which happened to bury the first three rangers and allowed the bot to start an escape I dragged Flynn down into the whole after it.

With Flynn's help we blew the bot up and when Venjix resurrected it the other three rangers arrived to destroy him with the zords.

While the others were getting rid of the trash I took Flynn back to the garage, we could worry about the cars after we had broken the ice to the rest of the team.

"Lacy, I don't know about this, this isn't going to end well back there, I am a convicted criminal, and they will never accept me as their teammate."

"Dr. K never would have sent you with the morpher if he didn't have some sneaky suspicion that Drake was a trap. If he was confident in him he would have had them bring Drake to the lab."

Soon after we arrived at the garage the others drove in with their cars and I demorphed looking each of them in the eyes.

"Alright Lacy, would you mind telling us who activated the Series black morpher?"

Flynn stepped forward and powered down, "Lacy convinced me that I should. She was doing everything in her power to keep Drake away from the morpher but he kept coming at me and attempting to take the morpher."

Dr. K growled, "Lacy that was not something for you to decide."

"Doc, don't look at me! You are the one who told Flynn to protect the morpher with his life and Drake would have killed him and then what good would protecting the morpher but dying do? It wouldn't have done anything." I got a sour look on my face. "Anyways Flynn has what it takes so I think you should all deal with it."

Scott frowned, "Lacy, you need to control that temper of yours. I might not be happy with this but what has been done is done and we can't change the past. We will just have to move on from here."

"Look, I know I might not have been the ideal pick for this but I hope I can do right by you all and prove myself to you." Flynn nodded as he walked back out to the garage to start dinner.

Summer sighed, "Flynn you are forgetting something." She ran over to him and handed him a jacket, "for all it is worth welcome to the team." She kissed him on the cheek before stepping back.

"Thanks Summer," Flynn put the jacket on and headed to the kitchen.

I walked to a shelf and pulled out a file, "This was brought over with Flynn the other day. I know you saw it briefly Scott but I want you to know that last night while you all were still sleeping I read through the file. Flynn deserves this more than anything, he has proven himself for this city more times than you can imagine."

Scott took the file from me and shifted through the numerous amounts of papers. Summer reached over and grabbed a few.

"Scott, he has a written recommendation from your father! Apparently he drove a bus through the front lines the day I saved your life. He brought a bunch of people to safety using nothing more than an old school bus." Summer gasped as she read the letter before placing it on the table.

Ziggy took another paper and read through it, "The day he was convicted of blowing up that building he had been on his way to the audition hall to audition to be the blue ranger. I walked past that very same building and saw some kids running up the stairs. Now that I remember clearly I saw Flynn he was running up the stairs after the children, I think he was trying to save them."

I crossed my arms and cocked an eyebrow.

"So, what do you think of him now?"

Scott paced, "I still don't like the fact that he pretty much stole the morpher from us but He does have an impressive resume."

"I think if he had tried out for the blue morpher he would have outscored me!" Ziggy responded. "He has my vote."

"He has mine as well." Summer nodded.

"Well Doc?" I asked smugly.

"We don't have a choice. However the evidence you have brought forward is quite positive. I will allow it to remain. Flynn will be our black ranger."

"Flynn won't let you guys down!" I hugged everyone that I could.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You know, I did some thinking and you know what would give me more faith in this shield?" I glared at the computer screen; it was my third day practicing my special ability.

"What would give you more faith, Ranger Green?" the screen asked.

"Oh, I don't know; maybe if for starters you called me Lacy like everyone else. I know it might not be my real name but it would sure go a long way in the trust area." I stared down the screen thinking I could develop powers that would rip it off its brackets and go crashing to the ground. "Another thing would be to know you really are a person and not another computer program who claims to be a person."

"Ranger Green, I prefer it this way, things are uncomplicated if I keep things professional."

"Why? I feel like a thing when you call me ranger green all the time. I am not a thing, albeit I may be a case study for you but I am not a thing, I am a person who eats and breaths, I sleep and I have emotions like I would like to think you do as well. There is a line between being professional and keeping us at a distance, afraid of us, we work for you and do everything you ask, we protect this city but not one of us knows who you really are."

"Enough Ranger Green! Power up your shield!" the computer roared and I did as I was commanded not wanting to tick the computer off anymore then I already had.

Dr. K got even more aggressive with me this time doing the training. He actually put the blaster right in my face and shot me. "Ugh you really need to stop this; I don't see how putting a blaster in my face is going to give me faith in my shield." I power down and storm out of the lab, so what if I don't have good behavior all the time.

As I leave there is the sound of Dr. K protesting behind me, "Ranger Green, you still owe me five minutes of shield training."

"Just put it on my tab!" I marched over to the kitchen to grab a can of soda when upon opening the fridge I found a blaster shoved in my face. Before I could even shut the door it blew me across the room. Ziggy was sitting on a couch and I landed right near him which caused him to get a laugh and a half before I glared at him.

The alarms rang to alert us of danger while I picked myself up off the ground and went to the computer screen to glare some more at Dr. K while we got the reports in.

"An air valve? You have to be kidding me." Scott resounded in disbelief.

"That means it isn't a very big task force right?" Flynn asked as he looked on.

"Let's just get over there." Scott growled as he marched for his car.

Ziggy jumped for the jeep as Flynn hopped into the driver's seat. He was thoroughly enjoying being a ranger.

I went for my car but Flynn poked his head out of his window, "You might not want to bother. Ziggy and I were just changing the tires on your car." I shook my head and glared at him already in a bad enough mood.

"Lacy, do you need a lift?"

I scowled and jumped into the passenger seat as Scott peeled out of the garage.

"If your anger is this high maybe it is a good thing you aren't driving." Scott looked over at me

"I am not angry; maybe you should learn to tell the difference. I am just really ticked right now. Dr. K expects me to trust him and have faith in my shield while I still don't entirely trust him. Anyways, I am saving my fire power right now for Venjix." I looked at Scott. "You don't know what it is like being me do you?"

"I don't need to know, I can see that you have your problems but sometimes we need to get over them and move forward. We can trust things without seeing them you know."

I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. "Remind me to jump into Flynn's jeep the next time my car is out of commission." I muttered.

"Oh, come on, I am not that bad of a driver." Scott teased.

I soon saw the location where the attack was taking place but Scott didn't slow down his car.

"Scott aren't you supposed to down shift before slowing down?" I held onto my seat and held my breath.

"Yeah, but I don't believe in it." Scott laughed.

"Ok, your not believing in downshifting is different from my not believing in Dr. K, don't you dare compare those two." I jumped out of the car as soon as it had stopped.

I evaluated the amount of grinders as I ran into the pack of them. The others were pushing through them pretty well so I activated my morpher and started wasting a few making a trail towards Drake. Of course Drake would be back, he just enjoyed targeting us too much. I wonder what Venjix did special for him.

"I remember you!" he responded as he paraded towards me. "I have been dreaming of destroying you since the last time."

"Oh you have, have you? Well, I have been dreaming of destroying you and how sweet it will be to not have you terrorizing the city." I ran up to him and wrestled with him for a while before he pulled out a blaster.

Of course, he had to have a blaster. I groaned as I flipped out of the way. After a few attempts I heard Dr. K through my morpher to activate my shield. The shield that never works but I activate it anyway and took a shot but it blew me straight back into a stack of boxes.

Drake stood there laughing, "You really are pathetic you know that right?"

"I am so glad you find me funny, because I am going to laugh so hard when I destroy you." I charged back at him only to be pushed aside as he powered up his blaster.

"Lacy, we got him!" I watched as Summer, Scott, and Ziggy powered up their combined blaster and pushed Drake back who in turn stood up and glared at us before marching off.

I pounded the ground as I got back up to join the others who were all demorphing.

"Lacy, don't look so down. We will get him another day." Summer hung her arm around me after I had demorphed.

I pushed her arm off of me as I walked past Flynn. "Lacy, are you going to ride back with me?"

"I am going to run, see you back at the garage." I took off as soon as I had bid my farewell but heard Scott call behind me that it would take too long, I just shouted back that I didn't care.

I ran hard and I ran fast, I didn't stop until I arrived at the garage. They were shocked to see me as I walked in because they were just beginning the debriefing.

"Wow, talk about fast. You sure have speed going for you Lacy," Ziggy commented as I grabbed a bottle of water before joining them.

"Ranger green, do you have any idea why the shield failed you?" Dr. K chided me as I walked towards the team causing me to stop and pace, the anger towards the Dr. growing again.

"I have no clue but I just know you are going to tell me." I mocked the voice.

"It is essential that you put your trust in the shield."

"I have news for you Doc, I am trusting it to the best of my ability, and it isn't working," I growled.

"Well, then we are going to have to double your training then." Dr. K's voice was irritating me now.

"If you are so sure it works then why don't you come out here and test it yourself. You have some incredible trust issues if you can't come out here and face us. I am not doubling my training either, I have been good natured about this so far and you just sit where ever you sit and order me around. If you want me to trust more then you are going to have to trust us."

"Ranger green, you can stay angry at me all you want but answer this question do you really know what trust is? How do you know you are going to come out of some of those stunts you pull without a broken bone?" That question oddly enough calmed me down and didn't send me over the edge but I still needed to get out of that room. I found myself a few minutes later with a book sitting in the kitchen reading while Flynn made a smoothie for himself. He asked if I wanted one of his unwind blends of smoothies, my response to that was picking up the biggest apple out of the fruit dish and taking a huge bite before turning back to my book. I made a mistake of sitting next to the fruit dish though because he kept asking me for fruit instead of getting it himself.

I finally had enough and went to my room where I sat for all of maybe five minutes when our alarm went off. I looked at my watch and shrugged my shoulders; I wasn't much good out there with the monsters… I didn't have a zord yet so all I could really do was the foot soldiers and after the group of foot soldiers we had taken out not too long ago I was guessing this was a monster. If they really needed me they would call me, my morpher was turned on.

I had just put the pillow over my head when I heard Flynn yell something about Odin's beard, he had used it several times and I still had no idea what he meant other than an exclamation of something that was shocking. But what was so shocking about a beard on a guy named Odin?

Just to see what was up and why the others hadn't left yet I found the cars all moved forward as if they had been leaving the garage but the door was shut, Ziggy was on the floor pulling his pants down slightly. I was still feeling like rebelling so I stayed behind my closed door watching through a crack.

I decided on coming out when they all raced after something black that scurried around the floor, did the alarm go off because they had a rat in the garage? That would be pretty ironic seeing as rats loved this kind of an environment.

As they all picked up pool cues to try and attack whatever it was Dr. K's screen lit up, "Rangers, I am detecting an intruder."

Scott paused for a moment and shook his head, "You think Doc?" He leaned over the pool table to look at something and ended up rolling over trying to push something out of his shirt.

This was just getting too good to watch but I looked over to the stairs which were all the way on the other side of the balcony. I gripped the side of the railing thinking about jumping down, I had calculated the distance before I some how knew I could make it without hurting myself and very little impact but Dr. K's voice kept ringing in my hand about my lack of trust, how did I know I wasn't going to get hurt? This was my body and I seemed to be able to do some strange things compared to the rest of my team. Maybe I did know what trust was and maybe I hadn't been trusting the shield because it wasn't actually a part of my body.

I shook my head as they started beating Scott with pool cues to get whatever was in his shirt out but it only seemed to drive the thing further up his shirt. I was guessing it was no rat so I gripped the railing and threw my body over the railing. I landed smoothly and safely and smiled slightly at the accomplishment before rolling over near the end of my car. I laid down and watched hoping to catch the thing as it ran past me but it jumped into my car.

"Lacy, watch out!" Scott yelled and I moved my head just before I was about to get a big mouthful of exhaust.

The next happening couldn't have been better choreographed if we had tried. Scott ordered a morphing so they all morphed and looked for the object that I now knew was a hand. It had moved out of my car and into another area, I spotted it near the pool table as it crawled inside a hole.

Ziggy picked up his blaster gun and fired it into the pool table Scott was waiting by the end with his sword and hit it across the table when it came flying out of the pool table. Summer was waiting with her nitro sword using it as a pool cue to hit it over into a wall where I laid underneath ready to catch it however it jumped over me and onto a table where it picked up a laser torch of all things. I jumped up and grabbed my morpher as it fired the torch at the other rangers before turning on me as I jumped in front of the other rangers who were down on the ground.

Dr. K chose this time to come on line and ordered me to use my shield. Oddly this time I didn't get angry with her for suggesting I use the shield because I was prepared so I powered up my shield and repelled the attack only to get a surprise, the hand spoke and it spoke in Drake's voice.

"I may be out of shield power but you might want to look behind you!" I grinned under my mask as I ran for the refrigerator door.

Dr. K pushed out the blaster that he hid in there and aimed it at the hand and that was the end of the stupid hand.

Scott came over and congratulated me as we looked at the remains of the hand lying in the middle of the floor. I just to be sure it was finished off stomped down my foot and crushed it flat. "Eat that Drake!"

Scott nodded and ran out to the breach zone where Colonel Truman's troops were attempting to hold an attack bot off.

Flynn and I stood and watched as the other three took care of the monster before powering up their zords. As it formed I looked up to see a squadron of Venjix's drones fly into the city.

"Hey Doc, you said I needed to pass my shield training to drive my zord do you think I can handle it yet?"

The voice issued just what I wanted to hear just then, "I think you have learned your lesson. Ranger black you should be able to handle your zord as well. Your powers aren't as crucial towards driving your zord."

Flynn laid a hand on my shoulder and with a nod we both activated our zords for the first time. As I locked into my seat it was as if the zord uploaded the user manual to my head because I knew almost all of the capabilities of my zord right at that moment. "This is extraordinary," I called out as I twisted the steering wheel causing a spin out just to show off before slicing through some low flying flyers with my apparently razor sharp tail.

After the battle we regrouped at the garage and I couldn't help but smile at the prospect of talking to Dr. K. I no longer felt angry and I just wanted to thank him for having faith in me. If he hadn't given me that advice earlier I would never have connected the fact that when I did those things with my body I was trusting myself. I had known what trust was all along, I just didn't know it by that name.

"Dr. K I have to thank you for that today, you have no idea how much it helped me." I grinned up at the screen but was not expecting the answer I received.

"No, ranger green, I need to thank you, if it hadn't been for what you had said I wouldn't have thought about what I must be doing to you." His screen went black and the lab doors opened. Curiously we walked inside and looked around. A hidden door opened automatically and Scott looked in first followed by me, I was shocked to see an empty control room with a window facing out to our conference area.

Everyone was confused until we heard the Doctor's voice behind us. What we saw when we turned around was not what we had been expecting at all. I nearly had to laugh but I held it in and just stared in disbelief.

The doctor was short, maybe came up to my shoulder and I wasn't that tall either, just your average height of about five and a half feet, which had to make her four foot ten or something in that range if I figured how long my neck and head were. But what was probably the most shocking was that the Doctor was a girl, just a girl, she looked like she had to be no older then eighteen and that would have been pushing it, maybe sixteen but definitely not old enough to be called a doctor. She was younger then I was that was for certain and I didn't know how old I was.

The doctor answered our stares by removing the voice changer and asking, "Did you think I would be taller?"

Flynn ended up not being able to hold it in and laughed, "I am sorry but is this some kind of joke? Where is the Doctor and how much did he pay you to dress up in those clothes?"

"Ranger Black, I don't know what you are talking about but I am indeed Dr. K."

"No really!" Flynn laughed before looking again, "By Odin's beard your serious aren't you?"

"Yes, I am completely serious. I am Dr. K." the girl replied as she took a seat at a computer there in the lab.

Ziggy shook his head, "But you look like a school girl."

Scott elbowed Ziggy and shook his head whispering no to him.

Summer walked forward, "I, for one, am glad to meet you finally Dr. K." She held out her hand but the handshake was never returned.

"You have seen me, rangers. Now, I must get back to my work, please could you leave my lab? I will call for you later."

Scott shrugged his shoulders and saw us all out. I went slightly unwilling having gone into a near shock state having held in my laughter.

"Dude that totally was not a dude." Ziggy turned around as we left the lab and the doors had closed behind us. "Raise your hand if you saw that coming."

We all stared at each other, we had to agree that the computer voice did make the Dr sound like a man or at least a very mature person, not someone who still couldn't drive a car and was still at risk to break out with severe acne any day.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I stood in the bathroom and stared at the mirror trying to do something with my hair. I couldn't just tie it back and I couldn't wear my jeans and tee shirt either, with those crossed off my team jacket was also out of the question. I was in an utterly confused state about what I was to do and I couldn't believe the reason was because of something I had agreed to do.

The reason could be completely blamed on Summer as well. She was the entire reason I was now in this pickle. Well, actually her parents were the entire reason we were both in this pickle. Apparently, she had made some obscure deal with her parents a year ago that if they gave her a year to live on her own and try things her way for once, she would submit to their will. Apparently, they took the year literally because yesterday at the exact hour that marked the last year of Corinth being the last safe place on earth from Venjix her parents showed up demanding her presence this evening at a gala event to announce some news to the entire upper class society of Corinth.

Summer, in shock, had turned to me and asked if I would go with her as her only real friend. She had explained that her friends all ditched her in the wastelands when a ride came along to take them to Corinth. The person who turned out to be her only real friend, her butler, had died in a Venjix attack just a couple miles from the city, she says that it was at that time she learned the value of friendship.

I, of course, asked her why she wanted me to go and she explained that the only other person she felt she could confide in was Scott and that her parents would not approve of her bringing a male friend as her guest to a party of this magnitude.

Not really understanding at that point, I agreed only to be surprised this morning when Summer announced to me the dress code of this party. I had protested explaining that I had absolutely nothing to wear to a party like that. And I indeed had nothing to wear; my wardrobe consisted of four pairs of jeans, two pairs of sweatpants, and a skirt. I had seven tee-shirts all at least fifty percent green. Don't ask why I even have the skirt because I have never worn it. I didn't even own a pair of dress shoes just a pair of work boots and a pair of sneakers. The boots had been what I was wearing when I entered the city and the sneakers were what I wore all the time now, it was easier to run in them and my feet were much more comfortable. The boot issue of course might be due to the fact that I took them off of a man who had recently died. Ok I know that sounds gross but I had scrubbed them thoroughly with sand and the guy had literally died only an hour or two before hand, he was still slightly warm and didn't have the smell of decaying body on him. Also you have to understand that living in the wastelands is an every person for themselves life. Everyone is trying to reach Corinth but few of them ever find it, the radiation kills most people before they even get close.

"Lacy?" Summer knocked on the bathroom door and I poked my head out to find her standing there with two dresses. "Which one do you want?"

"I will take whichever one you don't want." I shrugged as I eyed the both of them.

"My dress is in my room. My mother had one fit just for me for this party. They are making a huge deal out of what is going to end badly."

"Why do you even bother going then if it is going to end badly?" I asked back

"I would never live down the humiliation if I didn't go. I think you are lucky not remembering your past. Families can be so embarrassing." Summer sighed as she looked into the distance.

"No, Summer, I would give anything to remember my family. Was I an only child or did I have a brother or sister? Was I the youngest or the oldest? Those questions run through my head every night before I go to sleep. You should value your family and love the fact that you can run home and hug your father whenever you feel sad."

She laughed, "I guess the saying the grass is always greener on the other side applies here."

"I guess so; I think I will try on both dresses if that is alright?" I asked as I still couldn't decide on either dress.

"Oh of course, go ahead!" Summer handed both dresses over, "Though I feel you may like the one on the left, it has green highlights." She pointed out the dress that now rested in my left hand.

I shut the bathroom door and gazed back in the mirror at myself. I tried to imagine how I was going to wear my hair. My hair was a thick dark brown color that left little room for imagining exotic hair styles. Yes, it is true but I would never admit it, I was not that vain, I wished time over and over again that I had Summer's hair. It was the perfect color and with all her highlights just by twisting her hair simply it was something of an art form to look at.

I have to admit I was very pretty, but every time I look into the mirror I have to think, do I look like my Mother or my Father more? What would they think of me now? Did they make it to Corinth city; was I living under their noses? Part of me wanted to find out the answer to those questions but another part of me was yelling at me to stop getting so distracted that I forgot my purpose here. I was here to fight and destroy Venjix, find whoever I left in the wastelands and rescue them. Those were my two objectives. This evening with Summer was just a minor distraction and I couldn't afford to get distracted.

In the end, I ended up twisting my hair up in a few twisted braids and pinning them around my head. I chose the dress without the green because it went with my eyes better and looked a little more sensible then the green highlighted one. Now, all I had to do was worry about shoes but to do that I had to make it from the bathroom to my room wearing the dress, only problem was my room was on the other side of the balcony… yes all five of us share a bathroom, it isn't too bad Summer and I take turns dominating the bathroom in the mornings and the guys have it in the evening after they have gotten sweaty and dirty all day.

It's not a problem running back to my room; I do it barefoot all the time, only this time I am wearing a dress that is so not me. I have made an image to be the tomboy and not the girly girl Summer has the potential to be.

I open the door and look around, none of the boys are up in the upstairs area and I couldn't see anyone in the immediate common areas so I made a run for it, holding my regular clothes in my arms. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough because Ziggy popped out from behind a car and whistled at me. I tried to ignore it but when he yelled for Scott and Flynn I stopped like a deer in the headlights.

"Wow, I forgot what a perty lass was under the hard mask of ranger green." Flynn laughed.

"Lacy, the look suits you." Scott joked causing me to blush and side step back to my room and even with the door shut I could still feel their eyes boring into me, waiting for me to come out.

Summer looked up from a fashion magazine, "The guys saw you didn't they?"

I nodded as I folded my jeans up and stuck them in a bag. "I am bringing my jeans with me in case we have to go fight. There is no way I am kicking Drake's butt in a dress."

"I know what you mean; I am also going to sneak some street clothes with me so if something does happen I can change." Summer nodded.

"When I consented to go with you I was surprised Dr. K gave me the night off. She had been talking about performing some more tests on me this evening." I looked in Summer's direction as she opened her closet up so I could see all her shoes. "And I am lucky that you and I wear the same size of shoes as well as you being able to loan me a dress."

"Hey, it is no problem, and I am glad Dr. K had heart enough to let you out of training this evening so you could come with me and alleviate some of the boredom that is about to ensue at this party. In this last year I have done some serious growing up and most of the people at the party are still convinced that money is what makes friends."

"Well, I will certainly make waves when they find out how we met and the fact that I am on a prison work release contract." I smiled and Summer rolled her eyes.

"You know, Colonel Truman is trying to get that dropped don't you?"

"Oh, I know, he had a conference with me to review my performance as Ranger Series Operator Green and how exemplary my service these last two months have been."

"You have been doing a great job." Summer laughed as I marched around the room imitating Scott's father.

I stopped and looked towards the door, "I don't think Dr. K feels the same way, she keeps me at an even further distance then she keeps you or the others. She considers you guys tools of her trade but she considers me a case study and has forgotten I am a member of the ranger team before. Where does she a teenager get off thinking she is better than us?"

"I don't know but I am sure she has her reasons and maybe one day she will feel comfortable sharing them with us. And don't you forget that it was your prodding that got her to come out of her hiding spot and actually look us in the eye on a day to day basis, so maybe she respects you more than you think. I mean, for almost a year Scott and I talked to her on a computer screen wondering what our mysterious mentor looked like. Then Ziggy joined us and we would sit on the couch and he would give us imaginary descriptions of what we thought the Dr looked like, none of us ever would have placed our bets on a teenage girl." Summer smiled and then pointed to a pair of sandals, "Those will go with your dress perfectly."

I grabbed them before taking a look at my watch, "You said the limo was going to pick us up at six?" I asked as I slipped the sandals on.

"Yes, what time is it now?"

"According to my watch it is six now." I stood up and grabbed a sweater that had been laid out earlier, that would have gone with any of the dresses Summer had that would fit me.

Summer jumped off of her bed and we both raced downstairs with a bag of spare clothes in our hands.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs Dr. K walked out of the lab, "There you are ranger green, you were supposed to report to me half an hour ago for more testing."

"What! I told you earlier that I was going out tonight. You said that was fine, or were you not listening to me?" I protested.

"It is imperative that we do these tests ranger green. I don't know how you thought you could get out of them."

"Hey Doc, let Lacy have some fun, she doesn't get out much and why waste the effort Summer used to get her dolled up and looking like a girl for once." Flynn laughed causing me to blush.

"Yeah, what Flynn said, I need to get out once and a while just like the others." I backed out the door and shut it as fast as I could. As soon as I got into the limo I looked at Summer, "I sure am glad that she doesn't come outside or I am sure she would have chased me."

Summer laughed and we both turned to watch as the garage sunk into the darkness that had been programmed to fall about the city at about this time.

"I am probably going to have to pay for it when we get back later. I wonder if Dr. K actually sleeps or if she stays up all night drinking caffeine." I ask rhetorically calculating the earliest we could come back with the hope that the doctor had gone to sleep but still allow Summer to get a full night's sleep."

"I really don't know but she knows you don't sleep, or rather you don't have to. So she may pull an all-nighter just to study your late night habits."

I groaned, "Summer, she had better not or I am going to start waking you up after I have slept my four hours every night."

"I swear I didn't tell her about the night you ended up staying up all night testing your theory." Summer held up her hands to prove her innocence.

I had come up with the theory that I actually didn't need to sleep after a night that we had been out nearly all the night fighting Venjix and all the others came back and crashed where their adrenaline high wore off. I, on the other hand, had written all the reports and stayed awake till night fall when everyone else went to bed.

The idea had stemmed back to my time in the wasteland when thinking about it I would go days of driving and collecting from abandoned wrecks without sleeping. This was before I was completely aware of my difference so the time blended together and I had no idea how long I went between sleep periods. Still though, I preferred to sleep the four hours each night because I did feel a little bit worn down at the end of each day.

"So how come Scott would have been a lousy choice for this party? You never explained it to me, I would think your parents would love the fact that you came with the Colonel's son." I asked as I realized that we had been riding in silence.

The silence became tense for a few seconds before Summer broke the ice, "Because it wouldn't be appropriate to bring another guy to your engagement party now would it?"

If I had had a drink in my hand and had just taken a drink I would have spit it out so fast just now. "What!?"

"You heard me. I really don't want to go through with this, I love Scott. We have lived together and fought together for almost a year now. We have grown together and he just makes me feel right but my parents want me to marry this guy Chaz, they have had it set up for quite a while. To them pedigree is all that matters. I am a Landsdown and I should marry someone else with money. Mother always has said money makes the best pedigree because you can ensure your children have everything their hearts desire. It wouldn't matter that Scott's father practically runs the city, he is not from money and is of the soldier class."

"That is really stupid and if they can't accept who their daughter is in love with they should stuff it." I snorted.

"There is another aspect that they told me about yesterday when they took me aside. Chaz's family has agreed to help cover up my parents desperate situation if I marry. So in a way my parents are being selfish but I feel it is my place to do this for them." Summer sighed.

"You shouldn't feel you have to do this for your family. I know I might sound biased and I don't know what it is like because I can't remember my family but I am sure I would not consent to marriage just for the reason you have consented."

"You know what you are right. My parents can learn to live a new way. There are plenty of jobs around Corinth. However, if we go back to the garage you have to submit to more testing." Summer got a scheming look on her face. "We go to the party still as planned however I refuse the announcement and I will do everything in my power to totally embarrass Chaz."

I reached forward and got the drivers attention, "Could you pull over for a minute?"

I turned to Summer and grabbed our bags, "Let's start by showing up to the party in our work clothes." I whisper as I pulled up the privacy screen. "This will be fun and besides no offense but that dress was hardly comfortable."

Summer followed my lead hesitantly but by the time we lowered the screen we were both wearing our jeans and jackets and our hair was out of the hair styles we had pulled them up into.

When we arrived to the party Summer's parents were the first to see us. "Summer darling! This is an important event and you show up dressed like this?"

"No offence, Mrs. and Mr. Landsdown but we were unable to get the evening off. We were allowed to come to the party but on the condition that we stayed at the ready for an attack." I stepped up in defense for Summer.

"Summer, who is this peasant you brought with you?" Summer's mother stuck her nose up at me. "She is obviously been a bad influence to you. Tomorrow you will be moving back home with us where you belong."

"No, Mom, I belong at the Garage and this is Lacy, my best friend. I am sorry but I cannot accept the engagement to Chaz." Summer announced loudly to her parents.

"Summer, we discussed this. Do you want to shame our family?"

"I know this wouldn't be the place for it, but I think you are too embarrassed to realize the truth here." Summer sighed. "I started realizing it when Phillips died for me out in the wastelands but I understand it better now that I have met Lacy. She doesn't have a family and would give anything for a family that loves her but when she looks in at what I call a family it makes her question whether she would want a family. Families are supposed to love each other not use each other."

Summer took my arm and walked out of the party, "I am sorry, Lacy, I just can't do this."

"You did wonderfully and you know what. I would rather go get tested by Dr. K then be at this depressing party." I laughed as we walked back to the garage.

After walking for quite a while back towards the center of the city where the garage was located Summer looked at me, "I have an idea, tomorrow why don't we go write your name down on the wall of the missing? If you have family they can find you through there, I don't know why I never thought of it before."

"The wall of the missing?" I questioned

"Yes Ziggy told me about it, he does some work with the orphans and they have actually found some of the kid's parents through this wall. It is run by a support group in the Northern district; there were other families that found themselves separated when they were evacuated here. Even if your parents aren't here maybe there is a family friend who knows what happened to them." Summer explained.

"I don't know, Summer, I think for now I will just continue on. I mean life is going pretty well for me right now. Maybe once Venjix is gone we can worry about locating my family. I will continue to search on my own but I really don't want to get involved with too much right now." I look up at the night sky; the stars have all been perfectly aligned to match what the sky outside would show and I promise myself to keep looking for the person with clear blue eyes that, every time I have the vision, pierces my soul.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I sat on the stairs and watched my teammates fool around and thought about what I had learned about each one of them in the time I had been with them. Each one of them had an exciting past and sometimes it was almost painful to watch and know that they knew exactly what had shaped them to become the person they were today.

Scott was the youngest son of the Colonel and often felt he needed to put forth more then he had to give in order to make his father notice him. It wasn't fair that when inspections came around that the Colonel didn't even know his own son at times.

Ziggy was raised an orphan and is always trying to do the best he can to make a difference for the city. Any of his free time he has he spends it fixing up the orphanage and treating the kids with extra care. He managed to get a good life and he tried everything in his power to make sure that the current generation of Orphans made it as well.

Summer had been raised to think money was everything and that people who didn't have money were nobodies but through experiences in the wastelands she came to realize that money wasn't everything and that she could be happy just being Summer. Summer has stepped out on her own and left her parent's fold, she even turned down life as a trophy wife to some rich jerk who was afraid of getting his shoes dirty. Granted, I helped in that but she had it with that life and just enjoys being the best she can be as a person.

Flynn, well we all know his story. He has always been misunderstood and gotten in so much trouble and actually landed in jail before he managed to become a ranger even if it was an accidental thing. He uses the mistakes he has made in life to shape him and make him a better person. Everyday is a new day and he makes sure every day is a better day then the day before. I truly admire him for this but I am so afraid to try and make anything of it.

Dr. K raised in isolation in an underground bunker hidden from the sunlight, told everyday that she was very sick and that the sun would make her sicker only to find out that she wasn't sick. She was being held in that bunker because she was too smart and people didn't think others would understand her so they kept her inside at all costs. Even though now that she knows she can go outside she doesn't because she is afraid that people won't accept her.

Then there's me. I don't know what shaped me. My memories stripped of me, only the look of two eyes piercing into mine remain in my head. I have to wonder what kind of life did I hold, was I like Scott always having to prove myself? Was I like Ziggy in wanting to make sure others got the best in life? Was I like Summer who would do anything for her family? What about Flynn, was I like him in striving to make everyday better then the ones before them? I hope I wasn't like Dr. K and afraid that I wouldn't be accepted. Some days I wonder if there was a way to find out my past.

I know Summer suggested I put my name on the lost and found wall or something like that but putting my name up there would be hard because I am ninety nine percent sure that Lacy isn't my real name and they don't encourage pictures on the list because it is so long that names is all they put out. If a person has a question about a name that seems familiar then they can provide a picture but no one would ask to see my picture. Anyways, I am a ranger so they see my face on the news almost every week, if my family or friends of my family were here in Corinth then someone would have stepped forward by now.

I look up as the clock strikes the hour. Curfew has just fallen upon us and we have a half an hour to get to our rooms and have the lights off. Summer ran to the bathroom upon us both getting upstairs but came back soon enough to climb into bed. I flipped the light off in our room as soon as she was under the covers. I was contemplating staying up for a few hours before going to sleep but figured I might as well just sleep with the rest of them and wake up when I normally woke up. I knew Dr. K wasn't normally up at that hour so it was safe to move around the garage as long as I was quiet.

I woke up suddenly to the alarms blaring about half an hour before I should have gotten up and watched as Summer groggily got dressed as quickly as possible before going downstairs. Normally, I would have been right along side her but I had had a dream that I just needed to digest before getting up and running around. There would be more time later to ponder my dream but first I had to make sure I remembered it for later. I wanted, no needed to remember it, it wasn't just a dream it was possibly part of my memory.

I shrugged on my jacket before joining the others. Dr. K was debriefing the team on what she had gathered from the scanners. Surprisingly, she looked wide awake while the rest of the team was still wiping sleep dust from their eyes. I would have been as well except waking up from the dream had woken me up more then the alarm had. It had ended as a nightmare and I had a feeling that this nightmare wasn't over yet.

After the debriefing and Scott deciding where we would go I ran to my car while the others ran to their cars. Summer stopped me as she ran for her bike and inquired about my dream. I didn't want to worry her so I just replied with a lame cover up about a killer teddy bear.

"Ok if that is what you dream about, who am I to judge?" Summer grinned before jumping on her bike and kicking it into gear.

As I drove I thought a little about my dream. I was careful though and still paid attention to the road but it was clear that my mind was also not in the car. I was far away in a mist filled room staring at myself and when I reached out to touch myself I became the other me. I stood there dressed in a white gown utterly confused as Grinders attacked me. I looked back and saw someone with a cane come walking down the hall. Their face was obscured from view but the way the sight of that person made me feel it had to be my blue-eyed friend from my memory. I now knew why it looked like the eyes stared right into me but never saw anything, the person was blind.

I watched as the dream carried on and the grinders pushed my partner into the hole. And for the first time clearly I could see that it was a man. So the person I had left behind was a guy and Venjix had had him pushed down a tube. I reached out in my mind and held onto him still not able to hear his voice or see his face I held on and told him not to let go. I ended up being pulled away though dropping him down the shaft as an attack bot that looked like a satellite entered the room with orders to wipe my memories.

I slammed on the breaks, I didn't have amnesia. Something that Venjix had done to me caused me to forget. He stripped me of my thoughts and memories and then for some reason just dumped me out in the wastelands probably thinking I would have died. Well I was showing him, I was alive and I was going to be there the day we pulled his giant plug.

Pulling back onto the road I stepped on it in order to catch up to the others. When I reached them they were morphed and fighting an attack bot already. Something didn't set right with me, it was an attack bot and there was no Drake or Grinders anywhere to be seen. I knew there was another signal but it was moving around the city and Dr. K was still trying to locate the other signal but I hoped it wasn't Drake planning something stupid and the attack bot was just a trap or a diversion.

After the second bot I decided I had enough with this game. The others had been woken up early and they were going to start getting tired soon. I needed to find the source of the problem. We were never going to get to the second disturbance, which was disrupting shield codes if we kept getting intercepted by the freaks Venjix was sending one after another.

"Dr. K, have you gotten a fix on where this other bot might be?" I enquire hopefully to be rewarded.

"Almost, I have it down to a specific block in the downtown area." Dr. K responded.

"Red, I am going to take Black with me and we are going to try and find this other signal before it breaches the shields. You take care of whatever other attack bots are in the city." I nodded as I ran to my car.

"Green, I don't take orders from you!" I heard Scott protest from the back as I climbed into my car with Flynn climbing into his.

"Oh well, Red, deal with it. You want to keep Venjix from taking down the shield grid don't you?" I mutter as I turn on my car and peel out towards the street with Flynn on my tail. As I look into my mirror I shudder, Scott's anger at me was radiating through his helmet. And they thought I was the one with the anger issues.

After the two of us pulled up to the location the beams were definitely coming from Flynn started scouting around. "Flynn, it has to be some place up high, this kind of work can't be done down here on the ground." I point up to a medium sized building, "Let's try up there!"

Flynn got to the roof before I did but I saw the attack bot before he did, fortunately it was that way around because when I looked at it I stopped and froze. Flynn was able to shake me out of it before he was able to attack.

"Lacy, let's get him and take him down." Flynn said grabbing my arm pulling me into the attack.

"Hey, Satellite freak, I hope you have enjoyed this because I am going to take you off the air." I yelled as I started to fight. Flynn hung back waiting for a good opening.

"No." the bot said flatly as it pushed me away. "Familiar."

I glared it down, "I know you invaded my dreams last night! And now you are going to die!" I point out as I start to let my anger boil. I heard Flynn move around to another position and knew he was going to try to jump him.

"Ahh yes G-78, I have your memories." The bot said in a monotone expression that if it had emotion would sound almost giddy.

"I will take them back then. I think you have been withholding that transmission for too long." I scowled as I got ready to attack again. "I think there is a limit to how long you can hold back broadcasts so you might want to give them up before I tear you apart." I see out of the corner of my eye Flynn move in closer.

"You destroy me and your memories will get destroyed as well. I will never give them up." the bot replied as he booted at me while I was thinking.

I morphed but the bot came at me and pushed me while I was still vulnerable. "G-78, you are incomplete, I can fix that though."

My arm started to ache and I noticed shocks running up and down my arm. I hissed as I held my arm and looked for Flynn who was running up behind the bot morphed and ready for some action. "Black be careful!" I shouted.

"G-78, do you really want to destroy your memories?" it questioned me as my arm returned to somewhat normal.

I stopped and thought for a moment, "Black, stop I can't destroy this thing, there has to be another way to stop it."

"Green, are you kidding me, we can take this guy." Flynn muttered as he slowed down but kept his position.

"He has my memories; this is the bot Venjix used to wipe my memories. I don't have a traumatic amnesia like Dr. K thought I did. This wiped my memories because Venjix ordered it as part of whatever the stupid virus did to me." I nearly cried as the bot started to fire at the dome and sent a fire storm of laser blasts back at the two of us. I held my ground for a few minutes but Flynn was blown over towards me and at first I fell with Flynn following me.

The ground rushed up to the two of us as we fell and Flynn held onto my arm as I held onto his. If we didn't do anything we would both land very hard and splatter all over the street. With one hand I started reaching for everything I could attempt to slow down our momentum. I managed to grab a flag pole hanging from the side of the building and started to slow myself down. We were still falling extremely fast but I started arranging myself, getting my body into a position to land a jump, just hoping that I could handle landing myself and Flynn.

"Blue's teleporting powers would come in handy right now." Flynn muttered as I pulled him onto my back. This whole fall was happening in slow motion to me and I wondered if Black might be attempting to slow time down with his powers.

We landed a bit rougher then I would have liked however we both made it down uninjured and on our feet. I didn't know about Black but I would be a bit sore in the morning from the impact but I would live.

"Lacy, I am not sure how you did that." Flynn sighed as I powered down my visor

"I don't know either; I just had to trust my body. Yay for another thing for Dr. K to study, I seem to be able to do whatever I need to with my body and I really hate discovering these new abilities. I just want to be a normal person and not some super freak that all she has to do is think about it and she can land a jump from a ten story building."

"You have a gift Lacy and you should be thankful for it." Flynn patted my back. "What was that back there about memories?"

"That thing has the potential to take memories and it has taken mine." I shook my head looking almost scared.

"When did it take your memories? What is the name of the team?" Flynn questioned me trying to make sure I was alright.

"Whenever I was Venjix's prisoner, I am fine Flynn please don't question me right now." I looked around. "The bot has moved and I am sure by now Red, Yellow and Blue are on their way to intercept, we need to find them. I need to save my memories." I looked back at Flynn as I powered up my helmet and ran forward searching for any sign of them.

I stopped short as I entered a nearby plaza Red was indeed going at the bot with his sword. I jumped in the middle and put my head down as I sighed, "Red, you can't do this."

"Green, get out of my way! You have caused enough trouble this morning as is." Red pushed me aside but I pushed back.

Dr. K's voice could be heard over the communicators, "Ranger Green, I don't know what you are onto but we need to destroy that bot and we need to destroy it now. Please step aside and let Red do the work if you are going to be reluctant."

"No I can't do that, there has to be another way!" I stood firm.

"Listen to her guys, if there is a way we should see if we can copy whatever data that bot has because it has Green's memories. It knows her real name and it knows all the questions we all know she has about her life." Black responded in his thick accent as I pulled Red back to stop him from his attack.

"Ranger green, we can't let personal agenda's get in our way, I have no choice but to take you off line if you keep doing this." Dr. K's voice rang out as Ziggy teleported behind the monster to blast it. It seemed that the only one who cared about my past right now was Flynn. I decided to run at the monster again however I was soon stopped when I felt my energy levels drop suddenly and I felt like a lead weight lined my suit. "Ranger Green, I have control of your suit now, any further complaints and I will shut you down indefinitely."

I scowled but didn't say anything as I watched the other rangers get nailed by explosions from the bot. I experienced the back lash of the attack and fell down with them but was able to recover pretty fast.

"Ranger Green, you need to destroy that bot, you are the only one who can do it right now." Dr. K responded giving me an order.

"But it has my memories, that is something that I feel is important to me." I said as a refusal to the orders.

"Then I have no choice but to take you off line." Dr. K explained and I started to see my suit disintegrate around me. I was able to pull energy from somewhere and keep my suit on line much to my astonishment and confusion.

"I am sorry, Doc, but it doesn't look like you are going to be taking me off line." I smiled as I charged forward with my nitro sword, my least invasive sword and tried to reason with the bot to give me my memories back.

Something clicked in my head as I saw the other rangers standing back up. I may not have my memories but I had formed new ones, memories that were just as priceless as the ones I am sure that bot held. I remembered beating Scott with a pool cue. Sneaking out with Summer to go to a party that we ended up ditching before we had even joined.

I didn't need those memories, yes they might tell me what kind of a person I really was but what if the real me and Lacy who I had become were completely different. Would I really want to choose between the two lives at this point in time? I was sure Venjix had a copy of my memories somewhere in his computer banks. Maybe when this was all over I could download them from there in some way shape or form.

For now I was just Lacy and that was going to have to be fine. The rangers needed Lacy, I may not remember the past but I was strong because of the things I had survived and because of my hardware. I had proven that the team could depend on me even if I was still on a bit of shaky ground myself. Dr. K was right I had to focus on destroying Venjix and not on trying to get my memories from this bot.

I pulled out my full weapon and looked to the others, "Let's destroy this thing together!"

"You said it yourself, I have your memories and they are all you have." The bot responded as I started the assembly of the Enforcer.

"Yes, but something has made me realize the new memories I have been making with my new family. And I can do without my old memories for the time being." I shrugged as I stuck my engine cell into the enforcer to power it up.

After we had destroyed the bot I sucked in a deep breath and looked at the exploded Bot. Evidently it hadn't had what it took to be grown because it exploded into a million pieces all over the ground.

"Lacy, we are proud of you." Scott commended me after we had demorphed and were getting ready to walk back to our cars.

Flynn hugged me, "Lacy, you are a very strong person and that is all that matters."

"Thanks guys!" I smiled slightly but was still feeling depressed over the sacrifice I had made. I knew I had made what for now was the better choice but it still hurt none-the-less.

We found my car along with Flynn's jeep first so everyone got into the two cars while we made it back to where the other cars had been parked. Summer had ridden along with me and was watching as I navigated the street.

"Lacy, how come you are favoring your left arm some?" she asked as she watched me drive.

Shoot I had been trying to hide some of the discomfort that had started after demorphing. It wasn't bad just a very slight dull ache running under my skin. "It just stings I think I may have twisted a muscle," I replied with a smile as we came into the parking lot that had Summer's bike and Scott's car.

I drove in silence after dropping Summer off and just reflected on the vision I had managed to recollect from it all. I now knew that my partner was a man and that he was blind but now that left the nagging thought of wondering how I knew him, was he a lover and if he was my lover what were we boyfriend or husband, was just a friend or was he something else? It was clear that he hadn't escaped Venjix so Venjix must still have him unless he had managed to somehow get out which I somehow doubted. So if Venjix still had him was he still alive or was he torn to bits to be scientifically examined by the stupid sentient virus.

I was the last to pull into the garage and Summer walked over to my car, "I know Dr. K is your least favorite person right now but would you please let her look at your arm. She is a Dr and might be able to do something for your arm."

I couldn't even consent because Dr. K came out of her lab, "Ranger green, I need to scan you right now. sensors recorded that you took a hit from some kind of beam originating from that bot to your body."

Summer just stared as Flynn came to join the two of us.

"What's going on Doc?" he asked as he looked at the three of us.

"Ranger green is refusing to let me examine her arm."

"Ok, I am not refusing I am just hesitating, you would know if I was refusing because you would be face down on the ground and I would be a long way from you." I growled.

"Is this relating to that blast the bot fired at you back up on the roof top, the one that made your arm glow for a few seconds?" Flynn muttered.

Of course leave it to Flynn to have seen it all and describe what had happened.

"Ranger green, is this true?" Dr. K responded in an almost panic as she pushed me towards the lab with Summer and Flynn's help. After she had gotten me lying down she went to a monitor, "Ranger Black, will you pick up the scanner and scan Ranger green's body completely till I tell you to stop?"

Flynn did so as Summer watched the progress on the screen. I closed my eyes and tried to relax but it didn't work, I just couldn't relax in Dr. K's lab.

"This isn't good." I heard her mutter as I opened my eyes again. "Flynn, you can stop now." She nodded as Flynn shut the scanner off and set it back down on the table.

"What is the matter with me Doc?" I asked as I sat up and looked at the screen myself.

"That beam of light contained an activation code." Dr. K responded.

"An activation code for what?" Flynn asked as he looked at me and then looked at the screen.

"An activation code for the virus that was dormant inside Ranger Green's Venjix hardware."

"Doc, you said I didn't have a virus inside my hardware before." I said shocked.

Summer and Flynn looked at each other, "What does this mean?"

"The activation code has activated a virus that is now generating the growth of more Venjix technology. I don't have a cure for it and from the data it appears it won't stop till you are filled with one hundred percent of Venjix hardware," Dr. K gave the grim details of my condition.

"So what am I going to wake up tomorrow a robot?" I asked very stunned not wanting to believe it as I looked at my hand.

"No, not tomorrow, you were at five percent and you are now at a five point zero zero three percent. For now it is going slowly but I can't calculate a rate of takeover because there is evidence that this process could speed up as your hardware builds up inside you." Dr. K said showing the growth present on my scans. "For the time being I am going to suspend my testing on you and every week we are going to scan your body so I can chart the progress."

"Oh, wonderful, so now your experiment is going to shift from how my body works to what it looks like as a human turns into a robot." I jumped off the table and out of the lab without further discussion.

Flynn found me an hour later sulking out on a fire escape out behind the garage. When I ran and sulked I tried not to go too far but I still was able to find places where they wouldn't really look unless they were straining to look for me. In this case, I had hid on a fire escape on a building behind the garage and was about ten stories up just sitting with my legs dangling over the side.

"I know you like high places but any higher then this and it would be ridiculous. You wouldn't catch me dangling my legs over the side without morphing first." Flynn joked.

"Flynn I don't want to joke right now."

"Hey, I know things look kind of bleak right now but face it, they have to get better and at least the generation process is slow enough right now that at the current rate it will be like what ten years before Venjix has control. With any luck we will have destroyed the virus by then."

"That isn't what I am so down about."

"You want to share? I am here to listen. I think you and I are pretty close if I do say so myself."

"I have someone out there outside the dome, I left them out there and I think they are still in Venjix's grasp. He was in my dream last night with the bot from today and he is blind. I think that is mostly why I went as crazy as I did today. I saw more about him and I just wanted to know it all." I cried it out for the first time spilling what I knew. "Please, Flynn, don't tell the others. I will tell them when I am ready."

"You have my Scottish oath that I won't tell." Flynn laughed. "I know it must be hard but you Lacy you are who you are and whether you have your memories or not won't change that fact."

"Scottish oath is that supposed to mean something?" I smiled as I climbed back onto the right side of the railings.

"No, not really just saying that as sure as I am Scottish then your secret is safe with me." Flynn nodded. "Come on, I have to get back down to the garage, it won't be long before you have the rest of the team hounding me for food."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Scott, get off of me. This is wrong on so many levels." I rolled out from under Scott and the first thing I saw were fuzzy bunny slippers. "And it just got even more disturbing."

"Lacy, do you know what you just did?" Scott asked standing up as he looked at me.

"Uhh, the last thing I remember Summer dragged us all to the beach. What am I doing on the floor of the lab and why is it a mess?" I recalled what I remembered.

Summer had been bored of sitting around at the garage and Venjix hadn't attacked in several days. So she had dragged us all to the beach. She said it was to ease her boredom but I had also figured out that it was a ploy she was using to try and get me out of my broodiness that I had been sinking into.

We had been having enjoying the day at the beach when Ziggy had decided to see if he could outrun me at a foot race. Summer had bet that I would still win while Scott was betting that given the loose terrain of the sand I would tire quicker allowing Ziggy to beat me. I don't know how he reasoned that Ziggy would not tire as much as I did if not more but no matter he was running a fair race with me. We were neck and neck until just before the finish line when the both of us stopped short as if on cue much to the disappointment of the rest of the team.

"Come on Lacy, don't just give into Ziggy. Beat this I know you can." Summer cheered.

"Ziggy, what are you thinking she stopped you can totally beat her she just gave you the opening." Scott yelled.

I however looked at Ziggy and the both of us stepped over the finish line together and pushed past the other three which got them to turn around to see our uninvited spectator.

Drake was walking towards us clapping and shaking his head. "Human's and their attempts to show dominance among each other. That is why being a machine is so much better we all know our places and would never dare to challenge the superior."

Ziggy pointed, "I don't recall inviting you to our beach party. You should just leave while you still can."

"I have no intention of leaving. I think we need to have a little dance, we haven't met up in a while."

"You know, I really liked it that way!" I screamed as I ran in and started punching Drake while the others went after the grinders that poured out from behind a cliff down the beach from our location.

"You know, I missed our dance. I think if it didn't have to be this way we could make a pretty nice team because for a human you are pretty fast and accurate." Drake's lips curled up under his visor.

"No, thank you, I don't think that would work because for a robot you are a little too human for me. I like my robots to be a little more umm you know robotic looking." I smiled back as Drake twisted me around aggressively.

"Don't you dare ever call me a human, I am nothing like you." he growled at me before really heating up the aggressive dance like fight.

It was after he did a move that was more like a hug then anything else that sent me over the edge and into my morphed form. "You just crossed the line. I guess in whatever robot school you went to they didn't teach you how to treat a girl." I kicked him in the chest and flipped over and fought him for some time losing the dance we had been doing before in my human form.

After the others had finished off the pack of grinders Drake pulled out his handy hand blaster from his glove and blasted me directly. While I was flipping over from the blast he disappeared leaving me demorphed on the ground. Flynn ran over to me and picked me up.

"We should be getting back to the Garage so we can report back to Dr. K," Scott replied as he opened his car door with Summer sitting in his passenger seat

I went to the jeep and got in the passenger side while Ziggy climbed into the back seat of the jeep with Flynn and I.

Then I woke up on the lab floor staring at a horrific sight of fuzzy bunny slippers on a person that just didn't strike me as a fuzzy bunny type of person. I mean had any of us ever seen her out of her lab coat and school uniform? I for sure had never seen this side of the Doctor and wasn't sure if I wanted to see any more.

"Rangers Black and Red, could you please help Ranger green up and put her on my examining bench?" Dr. K asked and soon after I had Scott and Flynn's arms wrapped around mine pulling me to a standing position.

"Hey, Flynn, Scott, the last time I checked I had two perfectly fine legs and arms, I can get myself up." I struggled a little bit so I could get my balance.

"Oh, trust me, we know your legs and arms work fine, we are going to be coving up bruises for quite a while." Scott snorted as he put me down on the bench before pulling locks over my legs.

"Umm, guys, I may not like this table but you really don't need to strap me down, I will stay here you know that right." I struggled a little bit but the straps had been put in place just for me and were specifically made to hold me down. "Umm Doc, you said you hoped you would never have to use these and now all of a sudden you are just ordering that I get strapped down?"

"Lacy, you see all the destruction lying around?" Summer frowned as she came to stand near me.

"Yeah, it looks like Drake lent us his hand again." I looked around and then looked at Flynn's face followed by Summer's. "Wait a minute, it was me wasn't it? Venjix got to me out there, which is why I don't remember leaving the beach." Realizing this I struggled at my bonds knowing that I wouldn't be able to break them they had been designed following a test of my strength and were designed to withstand almost one thousand more pounds resistance then what I could currently manage. The reasoning behind this was that as my virus spread and grew I would potentially get stronger.

"Yes, it was you, out at the beach while you were fighting Drake he planted a remote override device on you and evidently it worked without our even knowing it till we had all gone to bed and you had slipped into the lab." Summer replied.

"So is putting me in my restraints for my protection?" I squirmed as I attempted to get my arm in a more comfortable position.

Dr. K looked at me, "No, it is for our safety."

"But it was that devices fault that Lacy lost control Doc. You know Lacy would never hurt us on purpose, yes she might be slightly overly aggressive at times and a bit stubborn but I think she has proven herself over and over again that she will be there for us every time." Ziggy said from behind me.

"Yes, that is true but I managed to get a partial scan before Ranger Green trashed my best scanner and from what I can tell that override downloaded an acceleration program into the already growing viral hardware, it is now growing fifty times faster then it was before.

"Oh, great, just what I needed to know, I am going to turn into One of Venjix's freak shows fifty times sooner then what you thought before?" I rolled my eyes and looked at the screens which now showed my bionic hardware, the small seeds were already very noticeable as they coated my bones and even replaced muscle groups. My shoulder didn't even look like a human shoulder anymore.

Flynn walked over to the screen and looked at the readouts before turning to the Doctor. "Out there we saw this attack bot that was with Drake. It didn't attack and it stayed on the cliff. I think it might have been the one to activate the remote device. If we could get our hands on it maybe there would be some data about the acceleration code or whatever."

"It is impossible to stop the transformation." Dr. K shook her head.

Summer looked at me and then at the screen, "But couldn't you use the data to slow it back down?"

"Theoretically, I should be able to slow down Ranger Green's transformation but I will not be able to stop it." The doctor said thoughtfully.

"Ok so that is covered but how the heck do we get that bot to come back to the city?" Scott looked around, "It seemed to have only one purpose and that was to sabotage Lacy."

"We make them think they won and that Lacy succeeded in what they programmed her to do." Ziggy smiled. "We lower the shields and Venjix will send back the attack bot to give Lacy new orders."

"And how do you know he didn't just give me all the orders out there on the beach?" I question up at Ziggy.

"Because that would be too risky, if you had been stopped we would have had all his information and as far as I know Venjix is not one to lose information to the side he feels is already losing." Summer said as a she laid a hand on my shoulder.

****

Half an hour later, I was free from the restraints but was being watched carefully by at least one other ranger at all times. I decided though that I couldn't let them take the risk of lowering the shields. Corinth was too important to the human race. I decided that I was going to slip out while Ziggy was supposed to be watching me. He was in the middle of reading a book that seemed to captivate his attention so much that he didn't even really notice when I stood up and went to my car.

"And where do you think your going Lacy?" Flynn popped up in my passenger side window as I turned the key in the ignition.

"I can't let you lower the shields. I am going out to the wastelands where I won't be a danger to the last human population. I will look for my partner and then journey on till I loose control and hopefully by then I will be so far away from Venjix's lair that I won't be accessible to him and I can hopefully keep myself from hurting another human."

I heard something and felt something cold snap onto my arm at that time. "No, I don't think you are going to do that." Flynn said smiling having crossed to my side of the car while I had talked.

"Flynn, give me the key or I will drive out of here taking your arm with me. I don't care how friendly we are or aren't I am leaving the dome before I can hurt anyone."

Scott walked over holding a key. "Lacy you want this key?"

"Scott, give me that key now or I will run you over while I rip Flynn's arm off his body." I revved my engine and glared him down.

"Oh you want this key?" Scott moved towards me but flipped the key into a gas can near the hood of my car.

I climbed out of my car through the window and stared the two of them down, "You two are both asking for it."

"We figured you would say that Lacy." Flynn smiled as he pulled my chain closer to him.

"Alright, you win, I am not happy about endangering Corinth but I will play along this time, now give me the spare so I can go to the bathroom without Flynn having to follow me."

Ziggy gasped slightly, "Uhh that was the only key, I swallowed the other key a few years ago."

"Ugh, I am glad I really didn't need to go." I glared at Flynn who looked almost too happy to spend some time handcuffed to me.

"We are going to have to figure something out for this evening because it is bound to be tomorrow at the earliest that Venjix sends anything into the city." Flynn rocked on his heals.

"And you couldn't just have Summer chain herself to me; it would have been a little bit more appropriate." I complained as I looked at the chain.

All evening Flynn and I spent the evening together and did everything together. We managed to work out the bathroom rotation and the chain was just long enough to enter the bathroom and do basic things without the other entering the bathroom, which however cancelled out Flynn's evening shower. For bed we both chilled in my car and reclined the seats. It was an uncomfortable night but it was a night of understanding for the two of us and we grew closer together despite my reluctance to do so. I didn't want to set ourselves up for a disaster and then to find that my partner was my lover but I was ready for whatever might happen and it seemed that Flynn was as well.

We woke up to the intruder alarm early in the morning very stiff from sleeping in the car and not in our beds. I climbed out of the car and Flynn followed however we ended up piling on the floor when we tried to run to join the others in answering the alarm.

"I was going to suggest that you hang back for a bit Lacy, it might make our trick look more real Lacy." Scott said as he chased the other two out of the garage and I just looked at Flynn.

"Tomorrow night, if we are still stuck like this, we are sleeping in the jeep, the seats look more comfortable."

"Hey, it was your idea to sleep in your car." Flynn protested as he worked on getting himself up off the ground.

Dr. K analyzed some readings while the monitors displayed the battle and as it heated up I began to pace. I wanted to be out there in the action getting retribution for what had been done to me and I was annoying Flynn as I proceeded with my pacing.

After a while I gave up with my waiting, "I give up, they have waited long enough. I am joining them out there." I pulled the chain over to my car.

"Oh no you aren't. I am not getting into that car again as long as my life depends on it until you get new seats for that thing." Flynn stopped short pulling me away from my car.

"If the two of you are going then shouldn't you at least decide on which car you are taking first before fighting over it?" Dr. K said getting very annoyed at us rattling the chain constantly.

In the end, we grabbed the random scooter that was parked inside the garage, which no one liked to drive.

When we got to the battle site Drake's jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw me back the rest of the rangers up. Of course, they were surprised that I was still on the rangers' side.

"Hey, Flynn, how about we cut this chain once and for all?"

"Now, that is an idea I can enjoy. No offence, Lacy." Flynn laughed as we both pulled out our morphers

"None taken, Flynn. I just want to get rid of this creep. We can worry about being close to each other on our own terms." I agreed with a smile as we both put up our wrists and activated the morphers. Once activated it was a very easy tug and the chains snapped. As we stepped apart Ziggy muttered something about that having been his best set of chains.

"Whatever is spinning through that mind of yours, Lacy had better be a plan to save the circuit board or you won't have much longer." Scott yelled at me from the side lines as I pulled out my weapon of choice ready to aim it at the attack bot.

"Oh I will be careful, I have a fairly new weapon from Dr. K." I responded as I pulled out the wheel blaster and lined it up with the twin that Flynn was now holding. They were supposed to bring our power to a new level but I wanted to wait and see what it would do before making any judgments on it. Though Flynn and I had talked it over on our way over here and we had decided that this was better then using our larger weapons which could potentially harm the chip they were aiming on getting to help me keep my humanity just a little while longer.

It did take some time but eventually with the help of the others we safely deactivated the bot. However, this just had to be one of the bots that could grow and force us to use our zords. I had never been a fan of this solution and now that I saw the bot growing what little hope I had had to getting the virus to slow down its transformation of my body was starting to diminish. That was until everyone banded together to form a megazord formation, my hope rose a bit and I felt confident that everyone would help me to the best of their ability. While some still were a bit hesitant they all loved me and treated me with the same exact respect they treated everyone else.

"Rangers, your energy levels are go for energy blasters." Dr. K responded over the comm.

"Doc, what is that supposed to mean?" Scott asked the communicator.

I jumped in having heard a bit about it earlier, "We have enough energy to deal a hard blow with the wheel blasters when we combine our energies with the zords."

"Green, how do you know that?" Ziggy turned to look at me and if I could see his eyes I would say he had one raised up past his hairline.

"Gee, you tend to pick up on extra things when you spend quite a while being the Doctor's lab rat." I sassed back as I pulled out my blaster and aimed it through the zord's visor and everyone followed getting the surprise when our zord's indicated they were also lining up fire power. When we hit the triggers instead of our blasters firing our zords each fired an energy blast.

"Wow!" Summer breathed as she watched the bot fall to the ground in pieces before jumping out of the zord. When the zord had disassembled and we were gathered on the ground Summer came running up to us holding a tiny little data card.

"Did you get the circuit board?" I asked looking almost hopeful.

"It is right here. Dr. K told me what to look for just before she took the shields down." Summer laid her gloved hand out to show the little thing in her hand. "Why don't we get back to the garage so that we can start the attempt to save Lacy's life?"

*******

"What just happened was that I entered the base code for the virus. I knew it because I am the one who created and released the Venjix virus." I shook my head and attempted to stand.

"Ugh, don't tell me that it happened again. And did I just hear what I think I heard or was I still somewhat disillusioned just now?"

Scott stepped forward, "We won't tell you what just happened, Lacy, and yes you did hear what you think you heard. Though I am wishing I hadn't heard that either."

"Whoa, let's hear the doc out." Ziggy stepped forward.

"I don't think I want to hear her out, she just said she is the entire reason behind what is happening to me. If she had never done what she had done I would be happy and have my memories intact and not be turning into a cruddy machine." I ground my teeth as I glared in her direction.

Summer gasped, "Look, the virus has slowed back down to its original growth rate." Summer pointed to a screen.

"I would feel happier about this if it wasn't for the bomb shell dropped on me just now." I groaned as I sat on the examination table.

"I know how you all must feel but I think it is time I told you more about the why and how." Dr. K walked closer to us all before looking to the ground. "If you will so permit me to tell you."

"If it will make your guilty conscious rest a bit easier I guess I can just sit back and listen to this sob story." I narrowed my eyes and sighed.

"Ranger green, when I created the Venjix virus I had no idea it would do this to humans much less evolve into a deadly virus that brought humanity to its knees." Dr. K said briskly. "When I was about six, I don't remember exactly how old I was I was taken by people in black coats because of my superior intellect. They fed me lies and kept me locked up in a windowless bunker. They told me that I was allergic to the sun. I know this isn't true however a part of me still believes them."

"So, that is why you don't go outside Doc?" Ziggy snickered a little bit.

"Yes, that is why but I was locked up in this bunker which the government called Alphabet soup, there were a couple of other children in there with me that were also extremely bright, two I know are dead, they helped me escape but got caught in an explosion. I was ordered to work on several top secret projects while there and to help me I created a virus which could speed up my work. Venjix was nothing more then a helper program that I could manipulate. I made a mistake one time when I tried to escape after I figured out that I wasn't really allergic to the sun. I freed Venjix from my computer and into the network that controlled Alphabet soup hoping it could help me evade detection. I was caught before I could erect a firewall and Venjix left the base. I had made the first mistake of creating Venjix sentient; I had done so, so that Venjix could communicate back to me easier what its findings were in my programs. Unfortunately when it got free it took what it learned from the way other humans treated me as the way of the world and apparently set out to destroy all humanity so that I could be free." Dr. K exhaled as she finished an explanation.

"Wow!" Scott and Summer replied in unison.

"Ok? It still doesn't make you any more the innocent." I shrugged as I jumped down. "You should have known not to play with fire, people always get hurt and in this case people had their lives ripped from them."

I turned on everyone and walked out of the lab however I stopped just outside the doors and listened to everyone else.

"Hey, Doc, we all make mistakes and if we were in your situation I am sure I would have done something similar." Ziggy responded.

"Yes, don't listen to Lacy, she can be a bit stubborn when it comes down to the fact that she was once one of Venjix's experiments and still is in some senses.

"I know where Lacy is coming from but I am sure she will come around. You were doing what you had to do. I am sure given by what kind of person you are that you really didn't mean for Venjix to become what it has become. You have us to stop it and we just have to deal with what has been done." Flynn said and I heard him shuffle around inside the lab.

I leaned my head back hard into the wall causing a slight pain, I am pretty sure that if I were entirely human I would have hissed in pain from how hard it hit but to me it felt like a light tap. Sighing a pulled myself off the wall and walked back into the lab. "They are right, I will get over it, if it hadn't been you probably someone with a more malicious intent would have created a threat worse then Venjix."

"Thanks, Ranger Green, I think that means a lot coming from you." Dr. K nodded.

"For crying out loud just this once do you think you can use our names?" Flynn exclaimed which caused me to giggle just a little, I had actually gotten used to being called Ranger Green and wasn't going to push my luck right now and I was happy just seeing Dr. K smile, for once she seemed like she was one of us and not so brainy that she was perfect and way above us. She was a girl and she was hurting inside like all of us in some shape or form. I knew though that come tomorrow we would probably be back on the same old track that we had been on with her acknowledging us as nothing more then weapons. It would be then that I took my anger out on her not now when she needed us.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Ranger series red I greatly admire you honor, integrity, decision making ability and your unusual looking hair. I am glad to have you as a member of my team, Scott." Dr. K listed qualities and hugged Scott before moving onto Summer in which she did the same and all I could do was stand there and listen barely able to comprehend what was going on. In the last week life had gotten strange, even stranger then before when she had briefly opened up to us before closing back down almost a month ago.

I watched as she went to Summer and then to Flynn before coming to me as she worked down the line giving us very forced smiles and even more awkward hugs along with odd qualities. As she came up to me I braced myself for the worst.

"Ranger series Green, I know being a ranger wasn't your choice seeing as you are here on a work release program and that your not always mentally stable, but I appreciate that you put up with my testing however reluctantly. Thank you for serving… Lacy." She hugged me before pulling away and with a stare at Ziggy she walked back to the two newest additions to our team. I sighed as I realized that it hadn't been quite so bad and she didn't go into the whole female dominance thing she had with Summer. I really didn't care either way though it made me wonder if she acknowledged me as a female or just simply a machine with a name.

I looked briefly over to the two new rangers, they had some history with Dr. K and it looked quite interesting considering that a month ago the Doctor had told us that her two closest friends in Alphabet soup had died and now from the way the three of them acted we figured that the two of them were the two friends, not to mention the fact that they also came from Alphabet soup.

I sighed as I watched the three of them disappear into the lab; Dr. K had taken in the last two days since we had brought them back to locking herself into the lab with them. Flynn figured that they were just catching up as it had been almost two years since they had seen each other. That is when I noticed Ziggy frustrated and I realized that she hadn't said anything about him or his name she had just sort of stared him down and I wondered what that was all about but just shrugged it off, I had bigger things to worry about at that moment as Flynn was making a special smoothie for just the two of us.

"Here you go my pretty lass." I smiled as he walked over to me with two smoothies of a special blend.

I watched as the two new rangers ran to their room before running back down the stairs and into the lab. Because they were twins they were allowed to share the extra room upstairs despite the gender differences and we were still trying to work out the bathroom schedule with them because they insisted on going everywhere together. "Hey Flynn, you would think everyone would have learned their lesson of picking up strays in the wastelands after you brought me back." I smiled and laughed.

"I thought that as well, but you aren't as strange as they are. You are a mystery what with your amnesia but they are just plain odd. I mean they are obviously very smart but they are acting like six year olds." Flynn laughed but ended up snorting some of his smoothie.

"Eww Flynn, that is gross." I moved away from him a little bit but continued to laugh none the less. As I laughed I thought about what had prompted us to be in the wastelands in the first place; me, I had been the cause and I was both glad we had made the trip and frustrated with the outcome and it had all started with Dr. K ordering me to submit to hypnotism.

"You want me to do what!?" I bolted up from my seat in the lab and stared at Dr. K in disbelief.

"I know it sounds skeptical and it has largely been unproven whether the theory of hypnotism actually works but it would really be helpful if we could learn more about your past."

"Yah how about no, I might not remember much but I know I have very firm stances on Hypnotism especially when someone who has never even studied it is offering to do it. No way no how, Summer is not going to hypnotize me." I stood firm and crossed my arms

"Yes you will, I have the ultimate say over what you will and will not do if you have forgotten about the agreements Ranger Green." Dr. K crossed her arms and tapped her foot before pointing to a stool out in the main garage.

"Oh sure I have to do this and we have to do this where everyone can watch Summer make a fool of herself." I growled as I went and sat at the edge of the table and stared the then empty seat down.

Summer sat across from me, "I have actually successfully hypnotized people before. You don't need to worry Lacy I won't let anything happen to you."

"Your not going to be able to hypnotize me, I don't know why you even talked the doctor into trying this." I sighed as I leaned back slightly relaxing while still feeling very edgy about everything that was starting to happen.

Ziggy came running down the stairs with Flynn nearby, "Oh I hope we aren't too late to watch Summer turn Lacy into a chicken. Flynn do you have the camera?"

"aye, this ought to be pretty funny." Flynn grinned causing me to scowl and glare at him

"I am not going to be making lacy act like a chicken, if one of you wants later I can make you guys act like a chicken." Summer said very annoyed as she placed her hand on the table covering something up so that I couldn't see it.

"If you have to do this I would argue for somewhere more private but I know that isn't going to happen." I glared daggers at Ziggy and Scott who were sitting on the back of my car however my attention was diverted when a soft sound reached my ears; Summer had my watch!

"Lacy tell me what you are feeling right now."

"I am feeling like I want to put a tape line across the floor in our room so you won't take my things anymore." I growled and grabbed my watch out of her hands as I looked at it. "I told you this isn't going to work!" however after I uttered that last sentence I blinked and when I opened my eyes again I didn't see Summer I just saw a long tunnel and there was a cylinder at the end with a glowing red eye. This was the first time I had had a vision when I was fully awake and was kind of disturbed by the feelings I was getting. I could hear Summer talking to me however I just wanted to explore, this was different from my other visions because I seemed to be controlling what I saw in this location. I looked around for clues to my past to please Dr. K when a translucent screen appeared and I saw myself walking through a crowded city holding onto the arm of my mysterious blind friend.

"I see something!" I declared, "I am with someone and I think I see a sign, let me see if I can get closer." I strained to try and zoom in on the sign. "Kenmore" I read before snapping out of my vision from the strained effort.

Summer picked up a portable computer and imputed the word I had seen in my vision. "There isn't any cities or counties named Kenmore in the directory." Summer frowned as she searched again, "Are you sure the sign said Kenmore?"

"Yes Summer, the sign said Kenmore, K-E-N-M-O-R-E." I replied as I paced back and forth disturbed by the vision.

"I found something!" Dr. K said as she set down another portable computer, "Kenmore Square in Omega City, it is smack in the middle of the city and was a very popular shopping area." She read the description.

I shook my head as I looked over at Flynn. He had been so happy for me that I could remember the name of someplace in the town they thought I had lived in. I had known right through the vision that something didn't feel right but everyone had persuaded me to go through with it. I had attempted to go by myself but Scott decided that we should all go and he even got his Dad's special operations camper.

"Flynn you do know that the reason I had wanted to go on my own after we found out where Kenmore was, was because I felt that something wasn't right about my vision. I had had this gut feeling telling me that this wasn't my memory but you all were so adamant about going out there and finding my past." I snuggled in closer to him and allowed his sweet smell to comfort me.

"I figured as much but we can't exactly tell Scott no can we. Every time we do he pulls out the 'I am Team Leader trash.'"

I giggled and looked up as the boom twins ran through the living area once again running to their room. "I think we should call them the boom twins with how they like to make things explode."

"I oddly enough agree with that!" Flynn declared but I didn't miss his eyes following the movements of Gemma as she sprinted back to the lab beside her brother, I chose to ignore it for a little while, I didn't feel like fighting with him right now.

"Guys really something doesn't feel right about this place, I think we need to get out of Omega City now and go back to Corinth! I really don't know how you are going to find anything on my past in Kenmore Square when Dr. K said it herself that Kenmore Square was a popular location, you know how many people possibly walked through Kenmore every day?" I finally announced wanting to get out of this ghost town that was making me uncomfortable and not in a very familiar way.

"Lacy, we are already here in Corinth, what harm could it do to look around some, we have to say we looked into something during our trip here or else it will have all been for nothing." Summer smiled at me.

"Summer don't you smile at me like this is some innocent car trip. I really think we should head back!" I argued back but quieted down when Scott stared me down to submission. "Alright, we can look but I am telling you nothing around here looks even vaguely familiar."

"Well, the whole post apocalyptic thing Ziggy and I were just bantering about up here could have something to do with the city not looking familiar." Flynn shrugged trying to get my spirits up and make me look on the bright side of things and with Scott sitting not too far away I just shut up and looked around at the city.

When we got close to Kenmore square we had to stop because of a series of cars were causing a road block obviously saying that something had happened suddenly which caused people to run for their lives and abandon their cars. Scott insisted that we go out and look around, I was still balking but they had after all forced me to look into my past and we had been led here even if all my instincts were telling me to get the heck out of this city. We left the camper and walked the short distance to Kenmore square. As we left the camper I thought I heard something from inside but being mad at the others I didn't say anything and just followed.

Little did I know that the noise I heard if I had spoken up would have gotten us out of the city without another confrontation with Venjix's soldiers but we can't very well change the past now can we? If we could I would jump back and keep Venjix from getting his hands on me and my male companion, maybe I could be living happily in Corinth and wouldn't need to fight for my life everyday as a ranger, the only way I can have a somewhat normal lifestyle in Corinth.

As we got into the square Ziggy got spooked or something because he bolted out of the square, maybe the ghost stories we had told each other much earlier had affected him because he looked very scared and there wasn't even anything but a dead and forgotten city in front of us. Flynn being the brave black ranger who often made up for the sorry excuse we had for a blue ranger chased after Ziggy to try and bring him back with the group. Even if this city was supposedly abandoned we weren't going to take any chances on being alone because weird things always seemed to happen when you were in ghost towns alone.

Flynn and Ziggy came running back a few minutes later, Ziggy no longer looked scared of the square something told me that he was now plain petrified of this city, maybe it was the look on Flynn's face now as well.

"Dr. K just got a transmission through while I was attempting to get Ziggy out from the bunk in the camper!" Flynn announced to us in a panicked voice, "She told us she has found out that there is a chip here in Corinth square that is broadcasting the same frequency from the chip we removed from Lacy's neck, we need to get out of here now, Lacy was right when she said this was going to be a dead end."

Just then I flinched and jumped out of the way as something that beeped came rolling in our direction, I saw all the others jump for cover as a bomb shaped like dynamite came rolling towards us. "Scott what would you do if I said I told you so right now?"

"Lets just destroy this attack bot and get out of the city and then we can worry about who was right and who was wrong here." Scott pounded his fist on the ground as he stood up with us all following his lead. We jumped into combat with the bot that appeared out of the fog along with a troop of grinders, how we didn't know they were that close is far beyond me but they had been hidden pretty well and not too far from our location.

We fought them however it was apparent that this dynamite attack bot was going to be too strong for us to handle without any of our back up. so we looked at each other and decided that it was going to be time to morph. However we soon realized that even this was not going to be enough however being so far out in the wastelands we knew there was going to be only so much we could do to this bot.

As we started on our last resorts we heard almost laughter like sounds come up from behind us. Tensing for another attack I was surprised and from the composure of everyone else I could tell they were surprised as well because flying over our heads and landing in front of us catching a bundle of dynamite were two more rangers, Gold and Silver.

It was almost too much to take in however the pieces started to connect to us all when after pushing the bot back into a retreat they jumped into two zords identical to the ones that had chased Venjix himself off while still on the road to Omega city. Little did we know that that was not going to be the last we saw of them but we sure didn't know what to make of them, they were so different from our style yet the symbols on their uniforms stated that they were supposedly from our team.

Sitting in the camper over halfway back to Corinth Ziggy was attempting to open a bag of marshmallows that he had brought along. We all braced ourselves remembering what had happened the last time what had happened the last time he had opened one of the bags of food however what followed was not getting sprayed with food being our biggest concern, Flynn lost control of the camper and we started zigzagging over the primitive road we had been driving on.

We soon found ourselves sitting morphed just off the road watching the camper fly down the face of a cliff. "Well there goes the hippy wheels!" I muttered only to have Scott stare at me; at least I think he was staring at me.

"My Dad is going to kill me when he finds out that we trashed his van." Scott screamed at me as I stood up.

"Oh well, we have bigger fish to fry, Venjix is back and I think he wants to end our lives once and for all." I pointed to where some fog was lifting to reveal Venjix followed by the attack bot from earlier and General Crunch.

While we fought and definitely seemed like we were losing we exchanged some words with Venjix though it didn't get us too far as he beat us to the ground and bound us with his own base code. However we were saved in the nick of time with help from our mysterious helpers, I knew my curiosity was picked now, I really wanted to know if these people were on our side or if Venjix had some how created his own ranger duo and was now trying to trick us. I was leaning on the fact that they were on our team but still puzzled to the fact of what they were doing out here in the wastelands.

Venjix seemed to know that he needed to evaluate this new wild card that had just been played and backed off as if knowing that his attack bot was going to be destroyed, he didn't seem to want that fate for himself. He disappeared before anything could happen and soon after he did the two new comers destroyed the attack bot with them declaring a loud boom at the resulting noise.

They started to walk away but we weren't going to let them get away this time, if Venjix having a body any indication of how strong the damned virus was getting we all knew we needed their support no matter how strange they were, they had intense power levels and I knew if they combined with us we would be unstoppable and evidently everyone else was doing similar calculations. They turned around after we chased them up close to their zords. We didn't know if they would come with us or not but at least we could meet them if anything else.

They surprised us however when they turned around and seemed to agree to take us to Corinth city without us even asking.

The one dressed in Gold asked first, "Do you need…"

"A ride?" finished the smaller female partner dressed in Silver.

Through our helmets we looked at each other and I could almost tell that we were relieved that they seemed to be heading to Corinth. However being a little skeptical I asked them another question.

"It depends on where are you going?" I asked to see what the answer would be.

"ranger Green are you crazy?" Scott whispered at me.

The silver ranger started this time, "We are going to see…"

"an old friend in Corinth!" exclaimed the one in gold.

Ziggy jumped forward, "you know that is just perfect because that is where we are going, maybe you can bunk with us at the garage and you know help us beat up a few bad guys before you leave or whatever you plan on doing."

The two new comers helped us into their zords and headed towards Corinth. We were glad to get out of the waste lands once and for all though; I never wanted to come this far out into the wastelands without a definite plan again. I think I was growing weak living in the city but this trip to the wastelands had scared me and I knew I had to look for a plan to find my companion.

When we landed in the city we demorphed however our new friends didn't and it concerned the others slightly as we showed them to the garage and explained to them what they should expect from Dr. K. I wasn't quite as concerned because I knew from living out there that sometimes you became a little too attached to your gas mask that when it was safe to breath you could be a little hesitant to get rid of the feel of that on your face.

When they saw Dr. K they took their helmets off and I think I saw Dr. K cry. The only time I had really ever seen her show any emotion was when she had talked about her two dead friends. I shook my head, she said she saw her friends die; this couldn't be them it had to be some sort of mistake.

It wasn't a mistake though and her next words as she hugged them made it apparent, "Rangers, I would like you to meet my Oldest friends I have, Gem and Gemma."

I turned and gagged as I walked away, "Call me back later I need to go throw up." I whispered to Summer.

"Ranger Green, please come back, we need to do introductions!" Dr. K demanded through her tears of happiness.

"Well I will tell you mine from here, "I am Lacy, however according to the good doctor over there, I am Ranger Operator Series Green and it is nice to meet you, now I am going to my room to do my over emotional over aggressive brooding that I do oh so well."

I flew up the stairs and around the balcony into my room and slammed the door before another word could be said.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Do you know that tune?"

I jumped around to see Flynn behind me, well I had known he was the one behind me as soon as he had spoke but I had been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't heard him come up behind me. "Yah, by heart but still every time I listen I like to think I can see his face."

"Who your blind companion?" Flynn laid a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled, "You know I love you so why are you so concerned over the visions of my friend, I know we don't know for certain what he was to me but I have been thinking that he must not have been a husband or something drastic like that because I am not wearing a ring."

"it could have been taken from you?" Flynn said taking the devil's advocate role.

"unlikely, I mean they didn't take the watch from me did they?" I sighed

Flynn looked like he was going to say something to me however the alarms went off and our conversation was dropped for a later date. We reported to where DR. K was standing however as we stood there I had a feeling that Flynn had been about to say some bad news to me but I didn't want to worry about it just then.

"What do we have Doc?" Scott asked coming up behind all of us.

"I am not quite sure sensors are saying the attack bot is a giant ball of yarn." Dr. K announced

"Are you kidding me? Venjix run out of ideas or something?" I leaned forward to look at the readings

Summer laughed, "maybe you should go and design that cat zord you have the schematics for?"

Ziggy leaned in, "I think we need a zord that looks like a giant pair of knitting needles."

I made a face and Flynn shook his head, "How about not, last time I checked Dr. K said they have to be in the shape of an animal because they are based on animal DNA. Knitting needles don't exactly have any Animal DNA in them do they?"

"Rangers no matter how stupid this attack bot may seem it is an attack bot none the less and all the time you spend bantering about what to do with it, it has more potential to destroy the city. need I remind you of more consequences?" Dr. K sighed as we ran towards the entrance location of the bot.

"Oh joy more trash." I kicked a trash bag, "I don't see any yarn ball shaped attack bots here, do you?"

"We just need to keep looking, Dr. K said it was here so it has to be, the sensors don't lie." Scott ordered and we all looked through more of the trash pile.

I stopped soon after, and everyone stopped with me as we looked up, Drake was standing over us with a smile on his face.

"No offense Mr. Drake, sir, but would you kindly get out of our way we are looking for a ball of yarn your master sent for us to play with. Or maybe you know where it is because we would really like to find it." Ziggy said pointing at Drake.

"Silly rangers don't know a trap when you are in one." Drake shook his head

Scott stepped forward shaking his head, "No, I think it is you who are trapped because looking around it looks like we have you pretty much outnumbered."

"I would look again because I don't think you out number us as much as you think." Drake sighed and stared at a balcony just above our heads.

"Ooh, tell us they are ready for us to give them their surprise." Crunch laughed as he looked down at us.

"No, we should make them wait to see what their surprise is, so it can really be a surprise!" Shifter laughed excitedly at the bunch of us.

"Good going Pin heads, now it isn't a surprise, you ruined it when you said surprise the first time." Drake sighed at us with a snort.

"We came here looking for a big ball of yarn. We were surprised that your master would stoop to that level of stupidity, what else do you think you could sick on us right now that would surprise us any more then that?" Ziggy stepped back out and I just glared at him through my visor.

"Ranger red, I have a feeling that Ranger Blue is going to get hurt here in just a minute." I sighed as I whispered to Scott. Just as I said that Ziggy went flying backwards while a grey blur shoved against him pushing him back into some boxes.

We all raced to free Ziggy and take down the attack bot however it trashed us in every direction and threw us around like we were rag dolls.

"The surprise we meant to give you was that this Generation fifteen attack bot was not meant to destroy the city, it was designed to destroy you." Drake smiled an evil grin as he stepped back to watch us.

I stood up and glared at Drake, I could almost feel his eyes staring deep into me through his dark visor. "You know what you need to stop talking, for a guy you drive me insane, you act like this is one big game." I ran at Drake and started to fight him.

I engaged Drake for quite a while as the rest of my team attempted to fight the saw bot. I don't know why but I always seem to want to take my anger out on Drake when he is around. We just seem to get along with our fighting styles, maybe it is the Venjix in me or something but whatever it is. Drake is a huge thorn in my side and I like nothing more then to fight him. I fought him till Dr. K ordered me to cease my fight with Drake and focus on what was more important at the moment. I wish I could have gone longer with him because he smiled at me as if to say I was a quitter, and I resent that greatly.

After we had our rear ends handed to us we went back to the garage and the twins started making something in the kitchen. Ziggy of course thinking of his stomach went looking to see if they were making breakfast. I watched in slight amusement as he put a spoonful of their concoction in his mouth.

Gem looked up at Ziggy, "oh that isn't pancake batter…"

"Silly! Its Neutronic…" Gemma supplied before her brother concluded

"Detonating putty!" Ziggy spit it out and proceeded to scrape it off his tongue.

I stood up and walked past him, "Gee if that doesn't wake you up Ziggy I don't know what will." I shook my head and proceeded to head upstairs with the intention of putting my watch away in its safe place. However with one foot on the foot of the stairs I looked at the twins and listened to their humming before opening my watch. The tune they were humming was the same one from the watch. "Gem, Gemma where did you learn that tune?" I asked turning around forgetting about my trip upstairs.

Gemma smiled, "Oh do you…"

"Like it? You can…"

"Join us if you like!" Gemma looked excited at the thought of having me hum with them.

"Just tell me where you heard it." I leaned down and glared at them.

Gem looked dreamily at his sister, "Oh we heard it in the factory and…"

"fell in love with the tune." Gemma giggled back

"What factory?" I snapped back getting impatient with their games.

Gemma started, "The one we were…"

"held in of course" Gem finished for his sister before the two of them ran over to one of the computer interfaces and brought up the schematics for the factory they wanted to blow up.

Their activity got the attention of Scott who came over to see what they were up to, "The plans for the Venjix factory?"

Gem started, "Yes, when we…"

Gemma continued, "were held there, we were…"

Gem picked back up, "in a cell next to…"

I listened as they continued to shoot their dialog back and forth and tried to keep track of who said what but it started to blur as they shot back and forth as fast as they could.

"a guy who always hummed that…"

"song. It sort of rubbed off…"

"on us and seemed like a…"

"good working song, so now when…"

"we work we hum it…"

"to!"

After processing briefly what they had just said I popped another question out of my mouth though I soon regretted it because they began to shoot a sentence back and forth between them. "This guy what did he look like?"

"Oh we never…"

"saw him, we just talked…"

"to him through a teeny…"

"tiny crack in the wall."

"He was very nice and seemed to enjoy talking with us!" they said in unison as they looked at each other before talking with their split sentences again.

"He told us…"

"that he would…"

"whistle the song…"

"so his sister…"

"would find him!"

"he also said…"

"that the tune…"

"came from an old…"

"family heirloom…"

"carried by his sister!"

My jaw dropped and I shook my head as I thought of this. I couldn't resist I had to ask them another question. So I asked as I dropped the chain of the watch to show the twins, "What was his name?"

The two of them stared at the watch slightly before Gem started to answer my question "Oh we don't know that,"

"no one in the camps…"

"used their real names."

Gemma paused before continuing, "There was something…"

"Different…"

"about him, he was…"

"Bl…"

"Inhibited…"

"in the visual arena!"

Ziggy had taken a seat and had been joined by Summer and Flynn behind us. He chose this time to make this known, "What do you mean, was he ugly or something? No offense Lacy but if he was ugly I doubt he was your brother."

I turned and looked at him with my hand forming into a fist but Summer and Flynn were already beating on him.

Gem continued, "He had a severe case of…"

"Ocular impairment!" Gemma spouted forth.

"He was…"

I stopped them and said it straight forward getting tired of their word games. "Your saying he was blind right?"

Gem mouthed back, "Blind, as in…"

"Not able to see!" Gemma pepped

I cheered and jumped a little, "Could it be possible that he is still there?" I asked out loud with a hopeful tune to my voice

"Ahh well we were…"

"just going to vaporize…"

"the whole prison from sub…"

"orbit but sure we can…"

"go and rescue…"

"your brother!"

I decided what I was going to do right then, I couldn't wait for the twins to come up with a rescue plan because their rescue plan would still include lots of explosions, I needed to get out there right then and there. I started to walk away but Scott came running at me, "Lacy you need to think rationally, we can't just be going out to the wastelands every time we learn something about your past!"

Flynn and Summer came to me as well, "Lacy for once, please listen to Scott we need to have a plan of attack. Venjix's prisons are not very lax on security." Flynn chided me.

"Thanks Flynn I guess you've chosen your side, after all I have confided in you about this." I shook my head however Dr. K was going to have more to say to me, which I knew to be the case when she came marching out of her lab.

"Need you be reminded about the last time you went running into the wastelands Lacy? We learned that that was a Venjix plot against you, what if all these memory fragments are fake!"

I could hardly restrain myself from mauling her this time, how dare she insult me so much. I had had these memories since before the viral upload with the sat bot, Flynn knew that was true, and I am sure Summer had some clue seeing as I woke her up several times a week with nightmares. "I know you think I am one big trap for the safety of Corinth but face it, it was your prodding the last time that got us bombarded out in the wastelands, This time I know it is real because Gem and Gemma are real! My watch is real so she has to be real; I have real and tangible evidence from two sources!" I turned and walked back towards my car.

When I sat in the driver's seat I noticed that the passenger seat was occupied, "Are you going to stop me or what?"

"No, if you are going to go wading out there, you shouldn't go alone at least." Flynn smiled at me, "And besides I took the map that Gem and Gemma drew on how to get to the factory."

"They drew a map?" I looked at Flynn like he was pulling my leg.

"Yeah early this morning before they started making that putty they were mixing. Summer was sitting with them as well. I didn't see it but she said it is understandable." Flynn placed it in my glove compartment.

I nodded, "alright lets go see about getting out of the dome without asking for the shields to be raised, do you want to see if I can make it through the burns over at station nineteen." Flynn held on for dear life as I rammed about the streets of Corinth making a direct line to Station nineteen.

Once we were out of the dome and traveling the wastelands I did fairly well navigating away from the dome till I started to lose sight of the dome in my rearview mirror. I pulled over on a hill that looked like it could be familiar however all hillsides in the wastelands look alike. "Flynn could you look at the map?"

Flynn flipped open the map and glanced at it, "Uhh, I don't know if I grabbed the right piece of paper, I don't see a rainbow or a unicorn anywhere out here in the wastelands."

I sighed and jerked the steering wheel ready to start doing a search pattern to see if I could find the prison by sheer luck.

Flynn laid a hand on the steering wheel and looked into my eyes, "Lacy, we are alone for right now. can you please look at me and talk with me for a few minutes before you start doing something radical?"

"Flynn what do you want to talk about?" I growled slightly but set my hands in my lap and glanced quickly at him before looking at my hands.

"You have seemed very moody and distant these last few days and as your closest fr… err boyfriend I want to know what is bothering you!"

"Like you don't know? I am surprised you haven't ditched me yet or stopped wanting to spend time with me by now!" I growled which got a puzzled look from Flynn. "I see you everyday while we are together looking at Gemma's butt!"

"I do not have a crush on Gemma, she may be cute and bright but she acts like a five year old. I am looking for someone who would like to talk to me equally and not expect me to color pretty pictures while discussing plans for a new bomb any day. Lacy you need to stop being so jealous, one of us are going to get hurt if you keep acting like this whenever you want. I told you before that you can talk to me and I expect that you will talk to me, I am not going to shrink you like Dr. K does either."

I held up my hand, "We have company." I whispered

Flynn looked behind us before panicking, "Lacy we might be able to outrun them, lets get going!" he yelled as Grinders started to surround my car.

The car shook with an explosion and I jumped out of the car, "too late!" I looked at the grinders as Flynn climbed out the driver's side and stood against my back as the grinders closed in. for a few minutes we defended each others backs but I quickly separated as I tried to take out as many as I could like I had done in the days when I was a lone wanderer. I soon found that Flynn was struggling and trying to help him I got myself tangled up pretty badly in the grips of about a dozen grinders.

Help came to us though when Summer came out of nowhere on her motorcycle, she had to have been trailing us. I just didn't know whether Scott had sent her to spy on me or if she had just come because she wanted to help me find my brother.

With her help regardless she distracted the grinders enough that I was able to free myself and take down a good many more of them while Flynn and Summer went to work on the rest. Once they were all defeated Summer grabbed the map and looked at it, "I told Flynn the map was easy to understand evidently he didn't listen to the twins and their legend. The unicorn's horn is the compass direction, the rainbow is Corinth. We are supposed to go Northwest out of Corinth and then each star is a unit of measurement, The factory is only three miles outside of Corinth on the North west side."

"Really it has been sitting under our noses and we never had any clue as to where it was? That is very sad, very very sad." Flynn shook his head as he looked at me and my new sense of determination. I was going to get my brother out of that factory if it was the last thing I did.

Summer jumped over towards the car, "I call front seat!"

"Hey not fair, I am the boyfriend!" Flynn protested as he tried to get into the front seat.

"I am the one who can read the map. So there!" Summer announced before moving the seat back so that Flynn could climb into my sorry excuse for a backseat.

"hey there isn't any seatbelts back here!" Flynn protested as he tried to sit on the small jump seat that passed as my back seat.

"We are out in the wastelands, I don't think there are going to be any police officers stopping us and citing us for not wearing our seat belts." I smiled riley at Flynn.

"Unless grinders have decided to give traffic citations. I think you are going to be fine back there Flynn." Summer laughed

"I just have one thing to say to you Flynn," I turned around with a huge smile on my face that caused a look of dread to cross his face.

"Oh no, dare I ask what it is?" Flynn sighed

"Not really but I am going to tell you anyways!" I jerked the steering wheel, "Hold on tight!"

"Oh of course I almost forgot you drive like a maniac out here in the wastelands. I wish I had installed a seatbelt back here when I did some maintenance on this heap o' junk." Flynn moaned as he grabbed for whatever was bolted down.

We had to backtrack to the outskirts of the dome and find the northwest gate before proceeding. I had learned that in the wastelands compasses were not reliable because of the radiation so the only way to my bearings correct were to find something like the gate that was marked with that kind of information.

Once we got on track it was pretty much smooth sailing, surprisingly we didn't run into any perimeter patrols while we were en route to the factory. Maybe Venjix didn't think there would be any refugees between the factory and Corinth seeing as if they were here they would have had to run into the factory first which would make them instant prisoners.

When we reached a hillside I stopped short trying to make as little noise as possibly, "I think the factory is just over that hill. I hear grinders and I think it sounds like a lot of grinders. We should probably go on foot."

Summer and Flynn just nodded as they climbed out of the car and quietly shut the door. The three of us climbed up the hill before Summer pulled out a pair of binoculars that she had found in my car. After they were out of the case she handed them to me.

I put the binoculars to my face and scanned the area, "this is definitely a Venjix factory."

"So Gem and Gemma were right?" Summer asked as if there had been some doubt to the boom twins' story in her mind.

"I need to get in there. I know if I can just see my brother's face I will recognize him. I just have this crazy gut instinct that I will know him." I handed the binoculars over to Summer to let her see the factory for herself.

"One problem Lacy how do you plan to get in there? We can't exactly just march up the grinders and ask them to let us inspect their prisoners." Flynn replied back

"Lacy I know you hate dress up but I think I know a way in." Summer said setting down the binoculars.

"And how would that be?" I asked almost dreading the answer.

"We blend in; I think I see some spare uniforms over there on a piece of machinery."

"No offense but so you know those probably were taken off of some workers that recently died." I informed my fashion diva roommate. "You know like those work boots of mine that you hate so very much."

"I think I can bear, I will just decontaminate myself as soon as we get back to the garage." Summer shrugged. I had to admit that she had come a long way since we ditched her family at that would have been engagement party. Scott and Ziggy said even that had been a big step for her. when she had first come to the garage to be ranger yellow when it was just her and Scott apparently she was still very much a princess and Scott often found himself serving her. it was a huge surprise that the two of them were now dating if the story was to be believed.

We ran to a hiding spot closer to the factory and close to the spare uniforms. We each grabbed one before hiding and slipping into the uniforms. Once we were clothed in the factory uniform we watched for a pattern in the movements so we could slip by.

It was Summer who noticed first, "The Grinders have to be programmed to look west every 26 seconds." She then counted down in which we all bolted for the prisoners and got into the crowd before the grinders looked back in our direction.

Once inside we broke off from the group so that we could get our bearings, it seemed that the prisoners were all going towards an assembly line so I decided that that wouldn't be the best time to go looking for my brother, however I was going to go at some point to ask. Though it was Flynn who pointed out that there were a bunch of grinders guarding a door?

"May I suggest we look in that room? it may have some information, if they are guarding it, it might be important." Flynn pointed towards the door.

"it might contain files. If it does it might be the best and easiest way to find my brother." I looked at Flynn who nodded back at me.

"Wait a minute someone is going to have to act as a distraction if you want to get through that door." Summer hesitated.

"Thanks Summer. I owe you one." I looked at Summer as Flynn and I crept towards the door while staying out of sight.

Summer made a distraction while Flynn and I made it into the door. "that looks like a computer terminal."

"No, duh Flynn!" I said as I ran up to it and looked over it.

"It doesn't have a keyboard." Flynn noted as he looked over the console. He reached for something, "this looks like it might be an activation key."

I took it and plugged it in which caused the screen to start rolling out information in which I started reading down the list.

"It is moving too fast maybe we should go out there and find your brother the old fashioned way"

"I can read it, give me a second I just found the list of prisoners." I touched the screen and stopped the flow before bringing up a different list.

"Don't tell Dr. K that you can read that fast or she will have you proofing her work for her." Flynn laughed.

"I doubt it; she barely trusts me and thinks she is perfect why would she want me to proof all her work for her?" I replied as I read through the list.

Flynn found another screen nearby and activated it, "Lacy we need to get out of here now." he ran back to me. "they aren't just building grinders here,"

An alarm sounded through out the factory just as I found information on a blind boy that had been here in the prison about the same time Gem and Gemma had told me they had been. I attempted to bring up the file to glance at it however grinders came up behind us and Flynn had to drag me out of the room while kicking the grinders out of the way. Somehow the two of us made it out of the factory without much help from me. When we got to the car we found Summer leaning against the car already having ditched her uniform.

"Thanks for waiting for us." I said really sarcastically.

"Hey I cleared the main floor of grinders for you." she shrugged as we got into the car and drove back to Corinth. I turned on the radio by habit but instead of getting the directions to Corinth I received an override transmission from Dr. K, Scott and Ziggy.

"for the love of Odin's beard, we need to get back to Corinth!" Flynn said once he realized that Scott and Ziggy were fighting the saw bot on their own. I nodded and stepped on the gas.

We got back to the city just as Venjix made the bot grow so we wasted no time in morphing before joining Scott and Ziggy so that we could make our zord configuration. With Gem and Gemma's very unpredictable battle plans we were able to confuse the saw bot long enough for us to blow him to smithereens'.

Once back at the Garage Summer and Flynn raced for the bathroom. I had informed Flynn that his uniform had smelled of dead person on the way back to the city so he was eager to get the uniform off and get showered, however he had to beat Summer to the bathroom for that to happen. I don't think it had really I just had to mess with his head a little. I might be broody but I liked a good joke once and a while, though some people would say my humor was twisted.

Scott grabbed my arm, "lacy you can't keep running off into the wastelands like that! We have rules for a reason and you think that you can break them whenever you want." He paused briefly and I knew he was going to tell me what my punishment was going to be. "You know what you have got…"

"I've got a brother." I whispered changing his words around

"actually I was going to go with attitude problem and then tell you that you had to wash the laundry for the next month but I you got me there." Scott laughed

"I have to go back there. He could still be there and I need to get him out before the twins blow the factory up." I sighed.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I sat in my car staring at my brother's key. I had been trying to get it to work for days now but each time I had time to myself someone always interrupted me. All the key seemed to do was twist around and float around the key hole.

Flynn popped up in my window, "Maybe I can help, you know I am a mechanic as well as an odd jobs type of guy."

"If I wanted your help Flynn I would ask for it." I growled at Flynn.

Flynn shrugged and then started rambling with one of his stories, "Ya know my Aunt always says if you keep looking back eventually you are going to step in Manure."

I looked at him with a glare as if to say what the heck.

Flynn apologized, "Well she did work on a farm so maybe that wasn't the most accurate example I could have used."

"You think? Now can I have some peace to work on figuring out my brother's key?" I shook my head.

Summer came down the stairs and Flynn went with Summer to go find something to fix which made me very happy, it meant I could work on my key by myself. As I worked I thought back to the past few days and the event that lead me to find my key. After We had found out that my brother had been at a factory and that there was a very dangerous machine being built there we had taken an offensive strike force and the Colonel out to the waste lands.

"No one says boom until I get my brother out of there! Is that clear?" I said as I attempted to grab the detonator from the boom twin's hands. Gem however closed it up and shrugged.

"Then we are clear, we get the civilians out and then we blow the facility before that thing launches." Colonel Truman said look at all the rangers and his support troops.

Dr. K announced to us from a com unit and I put both my hands into fists as she spoke, "And what if we can't do both Colonel? What if we have to choose between the fate of the prisoners including Ranger Green's Brother and the fate of the last human city on the face of the Earth?"

Flynn stepped up and I was honestly intrigued to hear what he was going to say, "Now listen I am not one to debate ethics or make tough moral calls but it is good vs. evil, us vs. them. I like my enemy right in front of me that I can see with my own two eyes!" Flynn had been making a pretty good speech and I was eagerly waiting for him to finish however I didn't get that opportunity because there was an explosion and Flynn's speech turned from morals to a proud, "Now that's what I am talking about!"

I whipped my head around and looked at the explosion with everyone else and gasped as Ziggy recognized that we were facing down the saw bot. while we analyzed the situation the Colonel ordered the support troops to engage and start to fire on the saw bot.

It quickly became clear that the bot was stronger than before. Scott ordered the troops to stand down and we ran into battle with the saw bot and morphed just prior to making contact with the enemy. It was an intense batter that we knew right from the start that Venjix had pulled all the stops out as our reward for planning an offensive attack for a change. Our only breath of fresh air came when Gem and Gemma used one of the explosives on the saw bot to blow him back to Venjix's lair.

After a wonderful pep talk from our fearful mentor in which she told us that if we failed or messed up we wouldn't get a second chance at this because before we could regroup and resupply Venjix would have increased his security. I shook my head as I thought of course we knew this was a no brainer, Venjix had proven time and time again that he was not stupid.

Colonel Truman gave us the go ahead and Scott saluted his father proudly before leading us to the door of the factory. Our first goal was to eliminate as many of the grinders surrounding the building as we could and as we regrouped I announced, "Our best shot is to split up, we can cover more ground that way!" I started to head for the prison cells however Flynn stopped me.

Scott took the detonation device from the boom twins and gave us orders, Summer was given the detonator and told to stay near the entrance. Flynn and Ziggy were told to go search for prisoners. "Lacy, I want you with me to plant the detonators"

"But I should be looking for my brother!" I protested.

"Lacy we don't have time." Summer shook her head.

Scott nodded to me in his leader tone, "Ziggy and Flynn will be more objective then you would be. I need your speed with me."

"More people looking for prisoners would be better though; Gem and Gemma could do the detonators far better anyways." I protested still however Gem and Gemma ran off yelling something about alternate orders and I cursed under my breath as I was forced to follow Scott through the facility.

Before I could even set one charge we were jumped on by an army of Grinders that had been waiting for us inside the factory. I went into Grinder crush mode that it was several minutes before I realized that Summer was struggling with our friend the Saw Bot. While I rescued Summer Scott took the advantage and snuck off to plant the charges.

The saw Bot managed to dimorph me and I rolled on the floor in pain. Summer chased the brute away with an energy burst and ran to my side, "Lacy did it?"

I sat up, "No but a forced dimorph hurts like nobody's business, even for me." I replied getting her drift, she was worried that it had tried to download another program to me.

"Yeah, I guess they do!" She smiled and she helped me up, "I guess you are feeling what we normally feel."

"Although I am not sure you could take this pain level that I am probably feeling right now." I attempted to give some humor to the situation as we moved to safer ground while we waited for our suits to reenergize.

There was a whining sound that vibrated the whole entire factory and I punched the wall, "They are launching that thing, My Brother could still be in here! Summer You can't detonate that thing."

Summer laid the detonator in my hands and closed my fingers around it, "You are going to do it Lacy!"

I looked at the device and shook my head but I understood, if it was in my hands I could press the button at the last possible moment, my reflexes were far faster than Summer's and I could give my brother every last second to be rescued.

We heard the launch command and I looked at Summer and hesitated with my finger over the button just as the saw bot returned.

"Lacy I will hold off the Saw Bot, you do what you need to do!" Summer ran at the saw bot still unmorphed. A few moments later Summer shook her head and looked at me telling me that I had to do it now.

I looked at the detonator and hesitated for a few seconds. Just as I got up the nerves to press the button Dr. K called me through my communicator. "Lacy disregard Ranger Red's order, we need to wait until the doomsday device clears the area. Wait for my go to detonate."

"But…." I asked into my communicator.

"Just trust me, Lacy; I do know what I am talking about." Dr. K assured me.

Scott reached my location and looked at the active detonator and I shrugged, "Dr. K told me to trust her and that we needed to wait for the attack bot to clear."

"Lacy, you are go for detonation!" Dr. K announced

Summer came running back to Scott and I and I flipped the switch and threw it further into the building as the three of ran from the building.

As we ran we got into the crowd of freed prisoners I looked at each and every young man in the group but none of them fit my vision and none of them were blind. I felt this sinking feeling and I looked back to the factory as it went up in flames.

"He could still be in there!" I ran back to the factory and I heard Flynn running up behind me.

"Lacy, there is no one else in there. We got everyone out; we even double checked every cell." Flynn called to me as I ran.

Flynn caught up to me as I breached the edge of the burning building, "Lacy, If we don't get out of here now, this entire building is going to collapse on us!"

"Fine then you leave, I will be fine! You need to get out of here!" I argued back and I attempted to push Flynn towards the door.

"I am not leaving here without you Lacy." Flynn protested and stopped me.

"Why are you always trying to stop me? I am fine on my own, I never asked you to help me rescue my bother." I yelled at Flynn and attempted to push him away.

"I am not leaving you alone, either you come with me or we will stay here, because I care for you, I care for you deeper than just a friend!" Flynn argued as he looked me in the eyes and wrapped his arms around me.

The building began to crumble from the intense heat and I pushed Flynn down and wrapped myself over him attempting in some sort of twisted fashion to protect him. However instead of the building collapsing on us we found ourselves under a waterfall.

I looked at Flynn and felt about ready to kiss him after the water had stopped rushing in however our moment was ruined because Gemma came running in declaring something about a flying whale and I looked at Flynn who just shrugged as well.

I shook my head and looked around the now water saturated partially burned factory, "Tell me where my brother's cell was?"

"Oh you are…" Gemma announced

Gem picked up, "Standing in it!"

I started flipping the piles of debris around and getting frustrated at how empty everything indeed was. "There is nothing here; it is just another dead end!"

Flynn bent down and picked up something small, "Lacy, Maybe it isn't as dead of an end after all." He held up a thin silver chain with something small attached.

I grabbed for it and lined it up next to my key and smiled, "My Brother!"

During training which took me away from figuring out my brother's key I got to learn exactly what Gemma had meant by a flying whale. Apparently while I was distracted by searching for my brother in the rubble of the factory Dr. K had reprogrammed the doomsday device with DNA to turn it into a zord that we could use and in turn gave it to the boom twins so that they could have a mega-zord. As if they weren't dangerous enough already I groaned as we had to attempt to merge our three mega-zords into one colossal structure.

My worst fears were founded when the twins decided to add in their own twists and flares and left Flynn and I to crash into Scott, Summer and Ziggy. We had laid out a plan of attack on how to best combine the three mega-zords but with their unpredictability I had no idea how we were to actually get the plan into action. As I picked myself up off the dashboard of my zord and got ready to disassemble I was working through my mind on how I could get rid of the nuisances, maybe we could lose them out in the wastelands again and they wouldn't be our problem anymore.

Getting back to the garage we all grabbed a snack that Flynn had left out for us before we left. I knew Scott was feeling the same way I was feeling because evidently while he and Ziggy had been shopping the twins had misused their powers and barged into a little scrimmage that had happened at the grocery store. I won't even go into the fact that Ziggy also misused his powers as well but that is just a story that he will never live down. If we were ever to have a fifty year anniversary, if I were even to still be around, I am sure we would talk about Ziggy's awkwardness all night long.

Speaking of the shopping trip they had gone on I noticed the lack of fresh produce that had been left out for us. Most of the stuff Scott and Ziggy had brought back were candy and junk food. I wonder how the two of them had even gotten this approved past the good doctor's budget. I mean that is the whole reason Flynn had become our designated chef was that he could actually cook nutritious meals made of real food.

I wasn't going to say anything but I sided with Ziggy in the after training one sided conversation that he held. I wasn't going to say anything because I knew Dr. K was going to come into the room at any moment which she did and evidently none too happy to see all the junk food on the counter either. I had to restrain myself as did the others when Ziggy stopped his anti Dr. K rant and had her snatch his junk food from his hand before he could even take a bite.

I groaned because I had just finished with my snack and was about to go to work on the key mystery a bit more when the alarms went off announcing that we had an attack bot inside the city. I really wanted to know how they all seemed to get in especially when the gates were all locked tight and guarded but I guess that was a mystery that was either above our pay grade or too far below us to even make it to our desk.

When we got out to the sector where the attack bot was located I wanted to go and pinch myself just to make sure I wasn't having a weird dream from being exposed to all that junk food or something because as Scott said, "It looked like the carnival was in town." What the heck was Venjix thinking?

Then I got the drift because before we could even fight it, the attack bot grew and we zorded up and I knew that somehow Venjix was tapped into our training sessions because the attack bot made the five of us perform the similar failed maneuver that had ended our training session. Luckily it didn't do as much damage because our zords weren't in combine mode but it still hurt whipping ourselves to the ground in such fashion.

What made our matters worse was that Dr. K told us we couldn't destroy the attack bot because we had no idea if this bot was designed to poison us out of the dome or not. The twins had been nowhere to be found following our training but now they came flying in without even listening to our radio chatter they just up and destroyed the attack bot. I severely wanted to know how Dr. K even stood them much less believed they were the golden children because I had seen Ziggy get punished for doing less than what they do.

All I knew as we headed back was based on the anger radiating off of Scott through his suit I knew I really wanted to watch as he reamed out the twins so as soon as we got back to the garage I took up my normal position around my car and pretended to play around with my brother's key. I was rewarded shortly afterward as Scott marched into the living area of the garage where the twins were coloring pictures of whatever they drew and my guess based on the map they had drawn was that all their innocent looking pictures had some hidden meaning.

As I listened I thought, "I might not be able to stand them and they might strike a very hated nerve in my body but the way their minds worked nearly fascinated me. It was almost like how I had no idea how I knew some of the things I knew."

Summer and Flynn came over to my perch and Ziggy popped his head up from behind my car where he had been "pretending" to sweep under the equipment racks just as Scott came back over to us rubbing his temples.

"Lacy, you should talk to them. You have that reckless streak plus the whole, your mind works differently from ours thing going for you. Maybe you can use a little of that cyborg freakish strength to scare them into submission." Scott said pointing at me as I looked up from my watch and glared him down.

Ziggy moved out and dropped his broom stick, "I will do it, I am reckless enough to face them." I was very glad when Summer and Flynn body barred him and Scott and I joined in telling him a very loud no.

Even still I wasn't about to budge when the twins looked at something laying on their table that beeped and they ran out saying that they would remember to shoot first and not ask questions later. I glared at Scott and so did everyone else, he had just made our situation ten times worse.

"Am I wrong in suggesting that we should take this matter to Dr. K?" Flynn reasoned with everyone and I groaned but nodded in agreement however when we headed over to the lab doors I made sure I was behind everyone else, I didn't like being in her direct line of fire. I got enough of that during my testing sessions.

Scott announced our presence to which Dr. K brushed us off at first and went about inputting data at various consoles and work stations all over her lab. Scott even tried to get her attention by telling her it was important but she just answered that it couldn't possibly be more important the deciphering energy readings in the wastelands.

"Look it's about Gem and Gemma!" Scott said as a last resort which got the teenaged doctor's attention and I just had to shake my head. It was unbelievable how much time of day she gave those two. Wait who am I kidding since they had shown up she had done less testing on me. Ok now I was torn because getting rid of them would mean more attention on me but keeping them meant I could hide under a rug and she wouldn't notice me.

"What about Gem and Gemma?" Dr. K looked at us as if we had time bombs for heads and shook her head as if we were the crazy ones and that we had been breaking all order and conduct out on the battle field. The look only got crazier as we told her about the strange device that the twins had gotten from her lab.

"I didn't give them a device!" Dr. K said bringing up the program that tracked our locations at all times. "They are heading right towards the disturbance that I have been tracking and if it is what I think it is they are in big trouble!" Oh great Scott didn't look happy and I hated what I knew was going to come next. She was going to order us to go after their sorry little butts and bring them back to the garage so that she can yell at us for not keeping them in line. Can't a girl just have some time to work on her watch once and a while especially when the dome isn't at immediate risk of being infiltrated?

"Take the zords and head to these coordinates." Dr. K said downloading a set of coordinates to a handheld device. So being the good natured rangers that always come to the rescue of those in need we did as we were told and headed across the ocean in which I learned that with some difficulty I could make my motorcycle shark shaped zord swim.

When we arrived and jumped out of the depths of the ocean Summer, Ziggy and Flynn all announced our arrival very proudly as if we had just joined a party. I however pointed despite the fact that no one could see me at the attack bot that was towering over a downed Mach mega-zord.

No sooner then I pointed out the attack bot did it turn its focus off of Gem and Gemma and onto us. I noticed that the Mach Megazord was tied down with string but I didn't care. I was actually very surprised when Scott willingly cut them free. If I had been the red ranger I would have left them on the ground because they couldn't mess up any plans while lying there.

Surprisingly despite our energy levels dropping because of something that attack bot was doing we were able to fight it and Gem and Gemma didn't get in our way with stupid stunts. What didn't help our levels any more though was that Venjix decided to show up in his flyer and start zapping us as well. During the attack we got wrapped up in the string that had been holding Gem and Gemma down and the two of them came through and freed us before making a surprising suggestion of combining our mega-zords.

My aches started to hurt from before with our failed attempts at the thought of attempting a move like that again however it was very surprising that they actually followed Scott's lead and the plan that had been laid out for us to get into sync with each other. We were rewarded by a new group cockpit in which Gem and Gemma joined in.

When we returned to the city evidently something we had said in our brief meeting before the battle with Dr. K had done something because she ordered the two of them to go and fix the door that they had busted down at the store. With some help from Flynn they fixed although they made no bones about telling us how it was much more fun to break things.

When Dr. K announced that there was a disturbance the twins started to run all crazy like but Summer invited them to ride with them. I grabbed Scott and pushed him into the passenger seat of my car. If Summer was going to invite them to go anywhere with us then they were going to ride in the jeep with Summer Flynn and Ziggy. I was glad that while inside the city I couldn't technically have a second passenger because of my lack of a true back seat or a seatbelt.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes as I woke up for the day but as I looked around the room something didn't feel right. My eye's landed on Summer's bed however the sheets were folded back and her shoes were missing from under her bed where she left them. I was curious about where she had gotten to, however I let it slide, Summer was a big girl and maybe she had just gone for a run or maybe she and Scott had gone off to be alone.

I went down to the couch with a book and my watch and groaned as I saw my poor car sitting there; it had given out on the way back from a fight the previous day. Flynn and Scott were going to put it up on the lift in the morning and have a look at it.

Just as the simulated sun light was peeking through the windows with its predawn dull glow Summer came tiptoeing into the garage by way of the side door. I put down my book and waited for her to put her hand on the stair way railing.

"Did you have fun?" I asked with a stupid smirk

"Lacy!" Summer stopped and looked very stupefied, "I didn't see you there, what are you doing down here?"

I stared as if to say really, "I am down here as I always am or did you forget I am cyborg and I don't sleep eight hours."

"Oh, yeah of course that's right. Where has my head gotten too? I couldn't sleep so I went for a run around the dome." Summer shrugged, "I am going to go up and get a few hours of sleep. I think it is Venjix's step up in battles that are stressing me out."

I shook my head as my roommate went up the stairs leaving me alone. This was not the first time I had caught her acting strange although this was the first time she had opted not to sleep.

I climbed into my car and pulled out my watch before reaching into the glove box where I had stashed my brother's key. I made the futile movement of sticking my brother's key into the keyhole but like every other time it just spun around and didn't click onto anything. I held it up to my key and compared the two. I was getting discouraged, I had been trying this key for weeks now and I still couldn't get any results. The thought had crossed my mind that maybe this was not what I thought it was and that maybe Dr. K was right and I didn't have a brother.

I must have been lost in thought because I didn't hear Flynn approach. But upon looking at my watch I saw that it had been over an hour since sitting in my car and the others were beginning to stir. "Good morning, perty lady, would you like sausage or bacon this morning?"

I smiled as I opened my door and climbed out, "why don't you surprise me?" Flynn got up first so he could start preparing breakfast for everyone although he had started staying up later in order to work on helping to maintain our vehicles what with all the wear and tear that had been happening on them with the increasing intensity of the battles.

Dr. K walked out of the lab and grabbed something out of the refrigerator. "Lacy and Flynn when the others get up please report to the lab I have a briefing prepared for before the dedication of the Energy plant."

I shook my head and sighed, "I nearly forgot that that was happening today."

"I hear you there Lacy. What with the increase in attacks and publicity events taking place we have not had any down time in over a month." Flynn shook his head as he cracked a few eggs into a frying pan.

Scott came down the stairs and looked at the two of us standing in the kitchen, "Let me guess Dr. K has a morning briefing for us?"

"Give him a prize Flynn." I groaned obviously Scott had been listening in from the top of the stairs.

Scott didn't wait for Flynn to give him anything, "I will go wake Ziggy so that we can get this over with."

I shook my head, "Don't bother. It will be a while before Summer stirs; she had a hard time sleeping so I am going to cover her chores for her this morning. I will get her up after you have taken your run." I explained buying us some more time slash while I tried to find a way I could punish Summer for sneaking around. I knew the easiest way was to catch her in a lie in front of Scott but I didn't want to be that cruel.

"She was having trouble sleeping?" Scott raised an eyebrow at me before shaking his head. He almost didn't buy that and I was worried that he might be onto my lie. If it came to it I wouldn't protect Summer but throw her to the wolves. She was my roommate and friend but when it boiled down I wasn't going to protect her from our team leader. I then made good on my promise to do her chores by cleaning the bathroom.

After Scott returned And Ziggy had rolled out of bed Dr. K came out of the lab with her arms crossed, "When I said morning briefing I didn't mean it could wait till nine o'clock."

Everyone picked up what they had been working on or eating while I ran upstairs with a sticky note that said Your Welcome on it which I stuck to Summer's face before tearing her blankets off of her bed. As I left I added in the fact that we had a briefing in five minutes. I shut the door as she scrambled out of bed to get dressed for the day.

Surprisingly Summer beat Flynn into the Lab and she stood next to me. "what was the sticky note for?"

"I covered for you over whatever you were doing last night and I did your chores for you." I whispered before Dr. K could get started.

"I was just out taking a run." Summer protested

"Yeah sure," I shook my head, "Don't let it happen again I will not defend you from Scott." I stopped as Scott looked at the two of us and coughed into his hand and Summer crossed her arms and moved closer to Gemma.

Dr. K rambled on and I think the only two who fully understood her were Gem and Gemma. I picked out key words that sounded relevant and beneficial to my own understanding but the rest I just filed and forgot. I could tell that the others were doing much the same, all except for Ziggy who was hanging onto every word. It was no secret that he had been crushing on our young genius doctor and even though he clearly didn't understand her he was addicted to the sound of her voice.

After the briefing we all went back out to the common area and Scott poured Summer a mug of coffee because she looked like she was going to fall over at any moment. He was worried about her and I wished that Summer would see that whatever she was doing was eventually going to hurt her more than it would hurt Scott.

Flynn shook his finger at Gem and Gemma, "Remember, at the dedication ceremony you should both be quiet and respectful, there should be no sound effects or snide remarks. We represent the best this city has to offer and we can't be acting childish or foolish."

"But that is,"

"who we are!" Gem and Gemma announced proudly making an exploding noise before high fiving each other.

Scott looked up at the two of them, "And that is fine when we are here or in battle but people go to a dedication ceremony to listen to the speakers not the protectors of their city fooling around."

I crossed my arms, "I will make a deal, if you can be silent during the ceremony then I will help you find a nice big target afterwards that you can blow up."

Gemma came running over to me, "You would do that for us Lacy?"

"Yes, I would, I may be clinically insane but I will do that for you." I shook my head and looked away rolling my eyes.

Gem smiled, "You are the greatest Lacy."

"Oh, I am glad you have that opinion of me." I muttered as I walked away afraid that I would say something stupid if I stood around any longer.

Having done Summer's chores and mine I decided that I would clock in a run and slowly make my way towards the dedication site. So I took off letting Scott know that I would meet up with them at the appointed time.

I lost track of how far I had run and would occasionally lose track of time but with a loop back towards the center of the dome I would check out the clock tower. I repeated this motion in a nearly figure eight pattern until it was time to join up with the others. I enjoyed it when I could just be free and Dr. K wasn't hounding me about tests and scans. I enjoyed being able to lose myself and be who I was and not a piece of machinery.

I stood with the rest of the team and I hated to admit it but the Colonel and mayor's speech was more boring and predictable than Dr. K's lectures. I also was annoyed that Gem and Gemma appeared to be behaving themselves. I had hoped for a kaboom or something that would get me out of the deal I had made with them but the managed to hold themselves together and they seemed almost normal.

What caught my attention the most was when the Colonel and the mayor each took their key to the city and stuck it together allowing the key to open the gate to the fuel depo. I looked at my key and my brother's as they inserted the city key into the lock and I gasped at what I discovered; they went and fit together.

My attention was dragged away from my keys when the Colonel yelled telling everyone to run. That didn't sound good to me, not for a dedication ceremony. I snapped my head around and saw a beam of energy hit one of the tanks.

Instinctively I reached for my engine cell as Scott yelled "Venjix".

No sooner had we morphed than a crowd of Grinders found us which I found very ironic. Why did they wait for us to morph? Maybe we would never find out about the universes little jokes.

Summer quickly stepped into leader mode. She sent Flynn, Ziggy, Scott and I to go after the attack bot that was shooting energy beams at the energy tanks. I was surprised that Scott so willingly let her take control of the situation but I didn't bother questioning it in the middle of an attack.

The heat bot was a difficult adversary in the fact that it could use its heat rays to repel our blaster attacks but also was more than decent at hand to hand combat. The four of us even tried alternating two way attacks. Flynn and I would attack and then Ziggy and Scott would attack from another direction but the attack bot kept wasting us. we couldn't even make any headway when Gem and Gemma joined us in the fight.

The Attack bot ran from us and I started to follow along with the chase however I stopped and did a head count. Gem and Gemma had joined us which meant Summer was still fighting Grinders by herself and I knew she must be wearing down by now due to her lack of sleep. I called out to them, "I am going back to help Summer out."

I ran back to Summer just as Drake came running from out of nowhere to join the attack on Summer. Summer seemed to be holding her own but I knew she must be wearing out and if Drake was going to attack her then it would be game over before too long. Drake was a merciless opponent who didn't give up easily at all.

"Leave her alone your fight is with me!" I called out as I broke between the two of them

"Subject D-44, get out of the way a hybrid is just no match for my robotic perfection. We have established that you are flawed." Drake said to me as he knocked me to the ground

"I think I have proven to be more resilient so I can take care of myself, but I thank you for your concern." I replied as I sprung back up and threw him a distance away from me.

We proceeded to fight each other with speed that could only have come from my upgrades as Drake would put it, even though I was deemed not perfect. I got caught up in the battle that if it wasn't for Summer yelling at me I wouldn't have noticed that Drake had attached his blaster unit to his fingers. I barely got my shield ready before the blast came at me as is I destroyed a watch tower when my shield redirected the blast in the wrong direction. The outcome couldn't have been better however because Drake was pinned to the ground under debris.

I started to walk away glad that Drake was down for the count but for some reason I couldn't seem to be bothered to finish him off. I knew I wasn't like V Venjix's other creations. I could never destroy something that was helpless and indefensible. That was my biggest flaw or rather what made me a good ranger; I had mercy on people, if you could call Drake a person.

I stopped when instead of hearing Drake gloat and try to irk me I heard him cry out in a scared tone that reached me to the core. Laying there on the ground was not the attack bot that had been trying to kill me since I had come to Corinth but a person who was hurt and scared of what would happen to him.

I took a few steps forward debating with myself, I couldn't bring myself to finish Drake off but did that mean I had to free Drake from the debris that I had buried him in?

Drake switched personalities back to his cold hateful demeanor as I headed towards him with a cold laugh, "Your true weakness is your Compassion, which is where I am stronger than you! I know when to deactivate those that have served their purpose." Drake stood up as he threw a pylon at me causing me to leap out of the way.

I lay on the ground favoring my arm while Drake stood up and looked at his body.

"You bleed when you get injured because you are just a hybrid but when I get injured it is a simple repair." Drake said as I noticed the gaping hole in his leg where you could see his robotic parts working and I could only envision my own transforming internal organs.

Summer came running to me and I heard the others approaching. They helped me get to my feet but when we looked up Drake was gone and nowhere to be seen. I demorphed and grabbed at my arm, looking as the blood dripped down my arm.

"Let's get you back to the garage and get that wound fixed up." Summer said as she guided me towards Scott's car.

"She isn't riding in my car dripping blood." Scott shook his head

Flynn pulled from his pocket a bandana, "This is clean, wrap it around the wound and it will stem the blood flow."

Summer took the bandana and tied it tightly around my arm making an improvised bandage which slowed the blood. Scott allowed me to ride with him while Summer jumped into the jeep with Flynn and Ziggy squeezed in the back with Gem and Gemma.

As we drove towards the garage Scott looked at me, "What do you think you were doing? Drake isn't a person he is a Venjix attack bot there is no room for compassion. He may look human but that is Venjix's plan to take advantage of our weakness."

"I don't know, I felt sorry for him, you didn't hear him cry for help. If you had you would have forgotten what he is as well." I said leaning my head against the window.

"No I wouldn't have. I know he is a machine and as a machine he is a threat to this city." Scott argued with me.

"Scott stop this car at once!" I yelled at him, "Are you forgetting that I am becoming a machine? Does that mean I am a security risk as well? Wait don't answer that." I groaned as I thought of the time I lost control.

"Lacy, yes you are a risk to this cities security but until the time that you can no longer control your actions you are a valuable member of this team. The difference between him and you is that you have human emotions, he is just like a crocodile, he can wear emotions to trick us but he can't really feel them." Scott said changing his tune as he kept driving towards the garage.

I leaned my head back down; I was not looking forward to what was going to happen when we got back to the garage. I knew Dr. K was already alerted to my injury and would be waiting for me. I knew she would scan be before she would clear me. I knew she would make a big deal over my mechanical growth but not of my physical injury.

Once we got to the garage Dr. K came to the door of her lab and beckoned for me to come in. I walked slowly enjoying my few moments of freedom. But once I hit the threshold to the lab and made the rest of the trip as fast as I could. I didn't like being in the lab any longer than necessary.

I sat on the table and let the scanner be run over my body as Summer brought the first aid kit and used it to clean my arm up. The wound wasn't actually as bad as it had appeared when I first demorphed. Dr. K theorized that it was because the energy matrix of my suit had contained the injury but once I had demorphed and the energy field had disintegrated all the blood that it had been holding in had just poured down my arm like a vase of water overflowing. It was still alarming that I had gotten injured at all when the pylon had hit me. We had all taken bigger blows but had come out unscratched.

I took a chance and looked at the monitor that displayed my transformation. My mind thought back to Drake's injury as I saw my left leg looked much like what I had seen from his left leg injury. It was surreal to think of my body like that. When I poked myself I still felt it as I always had but the scans didn't lie.

Looking at my blood soaked shirt I decided that I should go and get changed before anyone might show up for an inspection. "Can I please go to my room and get changed?"

Dr. K nodded and let me leave the room although I was sure she had more tests for me. I smirked because I would try my hardest to get out of them. I had just been injured and I didn't feel like being poke or prodded. I also had a secret agenda; I needed to check out my watch.

I made my way to my room and shut the door. I needed to be alone. I didn't want Summer bothering me while I played with my watch. I quickly changed my shirt and tossed my dirty one in the waste can, I hated that shirt anyways, Summer had made me buy it because she thought it was cute. I put on a tee-shirt and a pair of worn jeans.

I sat on my bed and pulled out my watch and examined both keys again before I slipped my brother's key into my key. Opening up my watch I heard the familiar melody that I loved to listen to. the tune that caused me to relax and sometimes remember the horrifying memories of my abduction. I took a deep breath and inserted the combined key into my watch and nearly hissed at the sound that came out. Part of me had hoped for happy memories but I saw only memories of the exact opposite.

I jumped off of my bed as I heard a knock on my door. Ziggy was looking for someone to play pool with him but I was on a mission so I blew right past him. I didn't feel like whipping his butt anyways even if I wasn't possessed to leave the dome just now. I walked to my car Summer glanced up from where she was cleaning her bike. Flynn looked as if he had something to say and Scott was scrubbing the interior of his car from any possible trace of blood I may have gotten in his car. I could care less about any of them at this point in time so I just kept on going.

I don't think I hit my breaks at all on my entire way to station 19. I just knew I needed to get out of the dome. Once I was through station 19 I flew over the dunes looking for anything that might be remotely familiar but of course all I saw was sand dunes. It was impossible to keep a straight path driving in the wastelands.

I eventually stopped and sat on the hood of my car and leaned my head on my knees and let the adrenaline rush off. I knew it would be dark soon and that I would have to head back shortly or I would never find my way back to Corinth. I played the pocket watch with the new tune over and over again

I was just thinking of heading back to Corinth and facing the music of leaving the dome when I heard a whistle in reply to the watch.

I looked up to see Drake come walking down the dune. "If that isn't my favorite tune; well my only tune." He reached out to touch the watch but I took it back into my hands.

"You haven't heard this one then?" I took just my key into my fingers and wound up the watch. The watch began to play my tune.

Drake's visor shot up from his face. After a few moments Drake looked at me and barked out, "Where did you get that?"

"You remember, don't you, It was given to us." I stood face to face with Drake and stared him in the eyes realizing that this was the first time I had ever seen him without his visor on. "You are my Brother."

"Your brother, I think you have some wires crossed, no wonder you were discarded by Venjix." Drake sneered at me.

"I don't remember much of my past but I know that Venjix made us both hybrids. You are like me." I reached out hoping I could touch my brother again and not have to fight him.

"I have news for you; you are a lowly imperfect hybrid who was discarded. I am Generation seven robotic technology." Drake jerked his arm away from mine and glared at me.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. I believe you are human." I scoffed back at Drake, "I don't remember much but I know you and I were once best friends and siblings at that."

"Yeah?" Drake asked cockily, "what is this then?" he raised his hand and pointed his laser blaster at me. I jumped back and activated my morpher hoping my arm would hold up for this battle. I activated my shield but Drake attempted to wait me out but I managed to hold my shield just long enough that I was able to block the shot at me and redirect it behind him.

Drake ran at me and I pleaded with him not to fight me but he kept on coming so I thought deeply as we tossed each other around the wastelands I felt my arm ache as I receive bow after blow and then I remembered the scans that Dr. K had shown to me. My leg was the heaviest development and the arm where I had been cut was the least developed.

As Drake came in for another attack I activated my gear cuffs and let them spin deeply into Drake's arm I didn't stop until Drake threw himself out of my path and landed a few feet away in a kneeling crouch. He wreathed in pain while I demorphed and stood over him.

He twisted his arm around to reveal his sleeve ripped up and scratches of blood seeping through his skin. "Impossible, I am bleeding!" he gazed at the cuts and seemed amazed at the sight of blood.

I stood silently not sure what to say to Drake but he jumped to his feet and ran away across the dunes. I tried to call out to him but other than to look back at me he kept on running further from me. It pained me to watch him go and know that I had been nearly speechless since proving my theory right.

Looking at the time I decided to head back to the city before the sun set.

As I drove into the garage Flynn came to my car and leaned in, "If you would just talk Lacy, I could help you. We all could."

"I wish you could Flynn. I wish you could help me." I shook my head before leaving my car to look for some solace on my favorite balcony.


	12. Chapter 12

The heat bot had returned and was trying to heat up the energy storage tanks. We knew we couldn't allow this to happen but I was still on edge from the day before. I wanted my brother to acknowledge me. I wanted him to remember but I also wanted both of us to live in a world with no fighting so we could be safe.

I had returned from the wastelands and I had only been there a few moments when the alarms had sounded telling us that there was an attack. We needed to stop this bot before he could superheat the fuel in the tanks. If those tanks were to explode all of Corinth would be wiped out faster than Venjix ever could on his own.

We fought the heat bot but ironically the only thing that could stop this overheated droid was the twins' ability to freeze things. We didn't get too much time to rejoice as we were blown on our backs by another enemy. It took a few moments for me figure out that it was Drake and he must have decided that my evidence against him wasn't good enough because he made a line straight for me.

"I am here for the hybrid, G-78. Don't get in my way or you will regret it!" Drake pointed his laser fingers at me and glared.

Flynn stood in my path and everyone gathered around me, "If you want one of us, you need to get through all of us."

"if that is the way it has to be, then so be it." Drake smirked evilly and motioned for grinders to come charging at us.

I noted that as the attack started Drake didn't lower his visor and instead stared straight at me the entire time. Hatred was pouring out of his eyes the entire time. If he could see my eyes they would be pouring love for my lost brother but also fear because I was afraid of what he was capable of.

I made a straight line for Drake because I wanted this fight to be over. I wanted Drake to see the light of day. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Then this will be easy. You will be defeated and your memories will be as well." Drake cursed as he flipped me across the street.

We fought on the edge of a bridge again with our perfect dance step fighting, "I need you to remember."

"It isn't the past I am worried about. It is my future in Venjix's army that I care about. I am going to be the greatest General in Venjix's new order once you pesky humans are gone." Drake cursed at me with venom in his voice.

I felt my energy drain and I knew that me engine cell was going to fail. Sure enough it failed just as Drake threw me over the railing of the walking path on the bridge. Drake jumped over and began to fight me again.

"Goodbye Subject D-44 when you are gone I will be that much stronger." Drake hissed.

I saw the others line up the road blaster and I had no choice. I had to show kindness to Drake. I jumped in the line of fire which caused the others to alter the blast at the last second. The alteration was enough to save me but Drake went flying through the air. He landed on the other side of the railing holding onto the corded railing separating the walking path from thin air.

I flew back and landed on concrete but when I saw Drake flailing in the air I ran to him and reached out my hand, "Take my hand, I will help you!" I paused, "Take my hand, please!"

Drake seemed to hesitate as he grappled to stay attached to the wires but he reached and grabbed onto my hand. I pulled him up while the others protested my actions. "Don't let go!"

Once I had Drake back on the bridge I stared at Drake and soaked in the knowledge that for a little while we were both together and safe. The others ran to me with their helmets demorphed.

"Lacy, why on earth did you save him! It has been trying to kill you since the beginning!" Scott protested.

"He is my brother." I replied confirming the truth in front of everyone while holding Drake close to me.

Everyone looked shocked at the revelation that I had just forced them to evaluate. If I could be turning into a machine it was possible that Venjix had faster ways to do the transformation and we knew that I wasn't the only hybrid out there.

Gem had a questioning look on his face as he looked at Gemma.

Gemma spoke first, "But your brother is…"

"Blind!" Gem finished

Flynn came to the realization next, "He is a hybrid as well. Venjix must have given him robotic eyes!"

Drake touched the edge of his eye trying to remember a time when he couldn't see. He looked at me with shock on his face as realization of what had truly been done to him hit him.

Our reunion was cut short by the heat bot thawing itself out. Scott ordered us to move out to take care of our grown menace.

"Wait here, I will return for you." I squeezed his hand before following hoping that I would have enough energy to fight.

I had just enough energy to morph and use my zord. Dr. K must have rerouted some energy which I was glad of. I knew my levels were still low but I made do with what I had. I had a brother to get back to. I had time to make up for. I had let him down once before, I sure wasn't going to let him down again.

Taking a lesson from Gem and Gemma Scott switched over to the paleo-max megazord and used the ice powers of the mastodon to freeze the heat bot back into extinction. This time though it was permanent.

My powers ran out soon after the defeat of the heat bot so I returned to the bridge. Drake was nowhere to be seen. Another attack bot came hopping out of nowhere and punched out at the zords before hopping away. I was shaken off balance by its coming and going but I tried to figure out what my next move would have to be.

I didn't have to worry as it appeared that the bot left the city. So the others after standing guard for a few moments returned to the ground and looked around.

Summer looked back and forth, "where is Drake?"

"I don't know!" I growled. I told him to wait here for me.

Ziggy spoke, "We can do a search for him. This city is only so big."

Scott shook his head, "We still haven't figured out how he gets into the city half the time. he could be anywhere."

I growled and raced for my car. "I will look for him then."

Scott shook his head and looked at the rest of the team, "We will all look for him."

"Ziggy you go with Lacey and look over at St. Clair heights. Summer, you come with me we will look around main street Flynn, take Gem and Gemma and head over to the beach sector." Scott ordered as he headed to his car. "When you are done searching your sector report back to the garage and we will reevaluate."

I glowered at Ziggy as we combed the streets of the housing district. I knew Drake wouldn't be in the housing district. There was no way to exit the city from this section of the dome. There was a reason why it was the residential district recommended for young families. It was safest in all of Corinth. I searched anyways because I wanted to find my brother.

When we had finished our search we drove back to the garage everyone else was returning as well. I looked at the map of the searched areas. "Gem and Gemma should do an aerial search of the dome."

Flynn shook his head, "Drake is clever and is good at blending in. if he doesn't want to be found we won't find him."

"Flynn he is my brother and right now he is lost and alone." I said shaking my head as I went back to my car. I stopped though as I saw someone standing the door of the Garage.

I walked up to him and looked him in the eye, "You believe that I only want to help you?"

"I think I do and I want to help you out as well." Drake said hesitantly as he watched the others out of the corners of his eyes.

I saw the other rangers tense up. They hadn't counted on Drake finding his own way to the garage even though he had been there before. I stood close to my brother and made my stance on the matter clear; he was not to be hurt.

I brought Drake into the garage while the others protected themselves for a trap. You knew it was a bad situation when you couldn't even trust your teammate's word on a matter such as this.

"I just want to help you out." Drake replied holding out his open hand showing that he was not holding any weapons at that moment.

Ziggy shook his head, "just this morning the king of sting here wanted to kill you Lacy."

"If we trust him, he could learn all about our technology. What would we do if Venjix is using him right now?" Scott shook his head. "I am fine with him being your brother but I don't think he should be here at the garage."

"You are sounding like Dr. K right now." I stared Scott down.

"This whole argument is moot." Dr. K said walking towards us

Ziggy raised an eyebrow at Dr. K

"Moot means it doesn't matter, has no relevance." Dr. K defined the word for Ziggy

"Ahh oh yes that moot." Ziggy nodded in understanding.

"That last bot was only here to sample wave lengths and collect matrix data in the ranger series biofield." Dr. K said pacing around the garage.

Summer tilted her head, "What does that mean for us?"

Dr. K explained "Well if my calculations are correct then…"

Gem picked up the conversation from Dr. K, "It will return to the city…"

"With the ability to intercept our bio-fields!" Gemma continued.

Dr. K concluded the statement, "And take control of our weapons." Our looks all became grim as we realized what Dr. K was explaining to us, "So whether Drake is a spy or not is the least of our concerns. Right now we are defenseless"

Drake spoke up seeing an opportunity to help us out and I looked at my brother knowing that he would help us and earn the others trust. "I can get the base codes."

Scott stepped forward, "How can you get the base codes?"

"It will be easy, Shifter designed the bot so all of his codes are in the computer and with my clearance I have access to all of that." Drake said firmly.

Dr. K looked hopeful, "With the codes I would have a chance."

"I will go get them then. I will need your help though." Drake said hesitantly

I stepped forward, "I will go with you."

Scott shook his head, "This is not a good plan. What if this is a trap and you don't come back with the codes."

Dr. K stepped back in, "It won't matter if he comes back at all if this is a trap."

"It will be moot?" Ziggy asked

"Exactly!" Dr. K affirmed

Drake looked at my wrist, "Leave your morpher. Venjix will detect it before we even get close."

I reached for my lanyard and hesitated before taking it off and handing it to Flynn. I then unstrapped my morpher and handed that over as well.

"Good luck Lacey" Flynn said placing his hand on my shoulder.

I nodded and guided Drake to my car opening the passenger door for him.

Once in the car I thought several times about saying something to him. But a lump of nervousness in my throat kept me from making any form of small talk with him. I knew I was going to kick myself later about not talking with him but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything.

Drake described a little bit of the files that he had seen that had at first made him want to kill me. He was listed as D-44 and I was G-78. The lump prevented me still from talking with him.

It wasn't until Drake instructed me to leave my car and we were watching grinder patrols that I managed to say something to him, "Did it say anything about our names?"

Drake looked at me confused and I realized he was still coming to grasp the concept that he was human. The thought that Drake might not be his real name was still far above him.

"The file that you were talking about in the car, did it say our names." I stated firmly

Drake shook his head before looking back over the edge of the banking, "Let's go, we have thirty seconds to the next patrol."

I stood and ran after Drake. I ran but I watched my back looking for a sneak attack of a surprise patrol that Drake hadn't counted on.

Once we were inside the palace I started having flashback of our escape attempt. I could see that this hallway had been the hallway that we had been in when we were captured and split up. I could see Drake weak and scared as I tried to direct him down the hall. I blinked and realized that Drake wasn't anywhere to be seen.

I called out for him as I looked around a corner of the hallway into another corridor.

I was taken off guard when Drake grabbed me from behind and whispered in my ear, "Play along and nothing will hurt you. I will make sure of it Lacy." Drake kicked me towards some approaching grinders, "Bind her, I have caught an intruder!"

The grinders slapped a restraint onto my hands and pushed me along behind Drake. I struggled as I had no idea what was going to happen. Part of me wanted to hate my brother for tricking me but the other voice reminded me that he had called me Lacy. I decided to play along as Drake had told me to so I kicked up a fit while walking to make my capture look truly real.

The grinders dragged me into a central chamber which my memory reminded me was the dwelling place of the Venjix core. Drake was addressing Venjix and seemed pleased with himself. I screamed at Drake, "You liar!" I fought against the grinders as they pushed me out of the room down another corridor.

A general called Kilobyte took my captors down a hall and after opening a door took my restraints off and had me shoved in a cell. Once the door was shut Kilobyte addressed me through the glass, "A ranger without a morpher, how curious is that?" he then walked away leaving me trapped in a cell. I then hoped that my intuition was correct about Drake.

I paced in my cell for a while and kicked at things. I however saw that any escape from inside this cell was impossible so I sat in the chair that was bolted to the floor. It reminded me of my first days in Corinth. I had to trust my brother and I had to do so patiently without trying to attract too much attention to myself.

I was thinking over the few memories I had of the palace and then the directions and turns I had been taken as I was brought to this cell. I knew I couldn't go through the control room on my own so I had to think of another way out if I got the chance. I almost didn't realize what it was when I saw a shadow crawl past the crack at the bottom of the door. But the object that came sliding across the floor was unmistakable as a data card. I stepped on it and picked it up carefully making sure it wasn't a trap.

There was a tapping noise at the window so I went to investigate and I found Drake's hand clinging to the door but no Drake to be seen. I groaned the detached hand was something that crept me out the most. I could stand the fact that my brother could now see but the detaching of his hand got to me.

The hand let me out and I paused looking at the way that I thought was the way out and then at my brother's hand. I decided to follow the hand. I figured it would lead me back to him and not near Venjix either. I also couldn't bring myself to leave Drake in this place again, I had done it once before and I wasn't going to do it again.

I paused around a corner as I saw some grinders' parade into a room. I heard Kilobyte accusing Drake of betraying Venjix. The grinders left the room a few seconds later and Drakes hand crawled into the room. I got closer to the door and could hear Kilobyte start to go on about how Drake had indeed betrayed Venjix. I looked around the room and saw two cables plugged in behind Kilobyte.

I reached for the cables as I walked into the room silently. At the right moment I unplugged the wires and zapped Kilobyte with the live wires.

"You came back for me!" Drake looked at me in disbelief

I reached down and too the hand from kilobyte, "I left you once I am not going to do it again." I looked out the door, "I trust you can get us out of here before he wakes up from his little nap?"

Drake nodded as he snapped his hand back on and pointed me down the corridor I had just come from. We were able to walk out the palace doors and past the first patrol before Drake's deception was realized. From there we ran back to my car and as we jumped in I ordered Drake to fasten his seatbelt.

Drake looked at me but all it took was for me to start driving erratically and he scrambled to put the restraint on. We blasted through several Grinder attacks but it wasn't until the Venjix barricade appeared that I began to get worried.

I watched as Drake lowered his visor and screwed on his finger laser which he aimed right at the barricade blowing up a chunk big enough for my car to get through for the second time. Getting though it once was unheard of but getting through it twice was death defying, I later realized. Once we entered the city I saw the paleo-max megazord battling so I stopped the car and climbed out, "Drake get the data to Dr. K" I ordered as Flynn handed me my morpher from the window of his car.

Ziggy, Gem and Gemma jumped out of the jeep and Summer climbed off of her bike. Ziggy started praising me like a God for making it through the barricade until Flynn grabbed him by his shirt color and shook him into lineup.

Once we morphed we got the okay to call on our zords. I smiled Drake must have gotten the data to Dr. K if she was comfortable with us taking out our zords. We fought hard but the bot was still able to take us down, it didn't seem able to take control of our zords however it gave us a pounding. Dr. K called out that she was sending a disruption code over the city broadcasting system and at first it worked but was quickly reversed by the bot. I had to wonder if the Paleo-max was being taken so easy because it was a prototype zord.

Scott rejoined us and after forming together his megazord he sent Flynn and I after the bot to assist Gem and Gemma. The attack bot quickly caused out zords to disengage from each other. It was looking hopeless as even Scott, Ziggy and Summer's zords broke apart. However we soon gained new respect for Dr. K when she announced that she now had the coding to combine all twelve of our zords together.

Scott received the codes and as our zords combined our energy levels grew larger and even surpassed peak efficiency. The bot was all of a sudden a piece of cake to destroy and we sliced through it like soft bread. It felt so good to destroy something so powerful. It was a great step forward in our battle with Venjix. Drake had changed sides and we proved we could defeat anything that was sent at us. The only thing dampening our celebration was Scott began having some serious chest pains during the attack.

Scott appeared to recover however and we went to go retrieve our cars and bikes. Drake came out from around a corner and waved at me. I waved back and started to run towards him, I need to make sure he was included in our celebration.

We were all blown backward by a blast hitting the road in front of us. Kilobyte walked out from an ally. While we were down he fired a second weapon at Drake and dragged him off. I tried to go after him but by the time I was to my feet and running Kilobyte was gone.

I collapsed and pounded the ground. I felt so helpless with the fact that Drake was gone from me again.

Scott took my shoulder and nodded confidently, "We will find him."


	13. Chapter 13

I looked at Scott laying on the exam table that I normally inhabited in Dr. K's lab and felt bad about my actions over the last twenty four hours. Drake had been recaptured and I made everyone go out looking for Drake. We were out in the waste lands driving in circles looking for anything familiar. I felt so strongly about finding him that I kept everyone going. We had been out in the wastelands when Scott had collapsed again. Flynn and Summer weren't taking any chances and drove him right back to Corinth. Scott was our leader and we needed him to lead us, his health took priority and I could just stand there and pray for my brother's safe return.

I looked at the scans as Scott walked off to go lay down. I noted Summer's concern over Dr. K's expression and I frowned, "It isn't what I have correct?"

"It isn't the virus that much is clear." Dr. K shook her head, "but I haven't discovered its exact function."

Gem walked out of the lab and came running back in a few minutes later, "I just ran upstairs and while I was there I checked in Scott's room." Gem stopped to catch his breath, "he wasn't there."

Gemma raced out to the garage and looked around, "he isn't in the garage."

Dr. K was just about to order a sweep of the building to see if he had collapsed somewhere when the alarms went off. "I will search for Scott; we have a breach in sector E-12 which is down town."

Summer dragged Ziggy by the arm, "We will go see who has come to visit, notify us if you find Scott."

We got to sector E-12 to find General Shifter wreaking havoc. I raced in and attacked, it didn't matter who was attacking the city I would waste them even if it was a fallen General. The only one I wouldn't hurt was Drake and that didn't matter now that Drake was on our side.

Shifter had become stronger than the other times we had fought him. He had us all on our backs and we were trying to figure out what to do when Scott appeared and stood next to Shifter. He was clutching his side but he was morphed.

Scott stood in front of shifter and when we were able to fire our weapons at shifter we ordered Scott to move but he responded in pain as if he was struggling to talk, "I can't!"

It dawned on me, "The thing in his chest. Shifter is controlling him with it."

Shifter gloated and flipped a switch causing Scott to pull his weapon on us.

I sighed, "We have to shoot, Scott would want us to." I pointed my weapon at Scott but couldn't press the trigger. I realized that even though Scott and I didn't get along much of the time he had grown to be like a brother.

A torrent of blue laser shots surrounded Shifter and Scott fell to his knees as the control box was destroyed. Scott quickly scrambled away from the device as it fell out of his side. And Ziggy looked for the source of the explosion.

"Uhh, is that who I think that is?" Ziggy asked pointing at a staircase behind us.

I looked up and gasped as I recognized Drake's profile. I ran towards my brother happy to see that he had escaped. As soon as I reached him my excitement turned to horror as he failed to recognize me and Summer pointed out the strange circuitry imbedded in Drakes forehead.

Drake addressed me in a cold computerized voice while I attempted to remind him of who he was. Drake then shoved me off and threw me to the ground like a piece of trash before jumping off the steps mindlessly.

I stood there and nearly cried at the thought of Drake being lost to me again. I didn't know how much more loss I could take. I didn't get much time to stew because Shifter made a giant come back. Scott was unable to join us as his energy levels were low from fighting himself. But the eleven of us managed to put together the Ultra Zord and Ziggy did the unbelievable act of firing both his and Scott's weapons. I had to admit the guy was dimwitted but he was either very brave to channel that much energy or that much stupid then I had always evaluated him to be.

We soared right through Shifter using a burning attack however we learned that the maneuver didn't defeat Shifter it just shrunk him. Scott was able to track and finish Shifter off for us though.

When we got back to the garage Scott came back with the key that had been inside him and Dr. K ran some tests on it. She announced that the key wasn't broken, just damaged and that she could partially repair it. Ziggy made some off the wall comments about using it to attract ladies for his potential harem which Dr. K shut him down.

I approached Dr. K at the mention of mind control, "Could we use it on Drake?"

"Potentially yes however because it was damaged you will only have three to four seconds before you will lose control of him." Dr. K responded to me

After going through a rundown I pretty much made the decision to use it on Drake and the others supported me. We owed this to Drake to get him back. Dr. K gave me a launcher for the key and everyone else devised a plan on how to catch Drake after I had shot him.

As we were planning the alarms sounded and Gem and Gemma went ahead of us to buy some time. They reported back that the Attack bot looked like a giant set of barbells and that Drake was nowhere in sight. We still went on as planned because I knew my brother would return to the city, Venjix after all wanted me destroyed.

I climbed into a snipers position where I could see the entire attack and the others calmly walked into a Grinder attack before they started fighting.

As I watched the battle from a rooftop looking for Drake he found me and attacked me causing me to lose the launcher and the key. I struggled to fight him; whatever Venjix had done to him had stripped everything that had been Drake from him. He was little more than a mindless machine in comparison to the Drake I had come to know as my brother. In fact his actions resembled the video Dr. K had made me watch of the time Venjix had gotten into my head.

Drake threw me off the rooftop and I morphed during the fall so that I landed fairly smoothly and not a pancake on the sidewalk. I raced for the launcher however Drake jumped down and got in my way. He had more control over jumping long distances than I ever did and it hurt to see how much like a machine he was acting.

We fought and fought and nothing I said seemed to get through to Drake. He used an upgraded laser finger on me and when I put my shield up it ate right through the shield. Drake seemed to watch me for a second and I could have sworn I saw something in his eyes but it was gone as soon as it had appeared, I knew he was still in there.

I grabbed the launcher and pointed at his retreating back but as much as I wanted to shoot it at him I kept hearing my team get smashed around by the bot they were fighting. In a last ditch attempt I turned and shot it at the bot allowing everyone else to destroy the bot. unfortunately Venjix started the download and the bot grew to zord size.

Despite the difficulty that everyone had at defeating it in normal size it was easily subdued by the road attack zord and the Mach megazord laser arrow attack.

We went back to the garage and I looked at the empty launcher with sadness. Ziggy had the pieces of the key and was trying to figure a way to recycle it with Gem and Gemma while Dr. K dragged me to the exam table to perform a scan on me.

I looked at the screen as she scanned and all I could see were mechanical bits and pieces taking over my body. My mood started to sink even lower.

"using the key on the bot was the right choice." Dr. K informed me as I started to frown.

"It didn't help Drake though did it?" I said bitterly as I turned my head away from the screen.

"We have plenty of time, we will get him." Flynn nodded as he took my hand.

"Actually we are almost out of time." Dr. K said losing all tact that she may have had in the last few hours. "The virus is at forty percent, I estimate that when the virus hits fifty percent Venjix will have your mind."

I ripped the electrodes off and stormed off not wanting to hear any more about my growth rate.

I was able to brood around for a few days but once I was back up to snuff and thinking clearly I found that Ziggy face a possible ghosting by Fresno Bob for acts he had committed before becoming a ranger. Surprisingly some of it was stuff that had been blamed on Flynn. Flynn wasn't angry at Ziggy however because if Ziggy hadn't done what he had Flynn would be the blue ranger, I wouldn't be in Corinth and Flynn would more than likely have the lame ability to teleport himself into dangerous locations.

Miraculously now that I was feeling better about myself Venjix resumed his attacks. We went out to find Kilobyte attacking the city personally. We fought Kilobyte demorphed because our morphers were down for maintenance. But after a butt whooping and Ziggy getting captured Dr. K rebooted the system for us. even morphed we got trashed by Kilobyte.

We were defeated and when we did a headcount we found the Ziggy was missing and that his morpher was untraceable. We proceeded to search the city but the only thing we found was Kilobyte when he returned to the city. Gem brought us the Rail Sabre and news that Ziggy had been located and was being joined by Gemma as he spoke to us.

With the rail sabre we nearly finished Kilobyte but he was able to save himself by starting a download and growing therefore reversing the energy we had shot at him. Because Ziggy was missing we did a melee attack on Kilobyte and hoped for Ziggy and Gemma to return to us quickly.

We were about to attack when we were notified that Kilobyte and drake had been distracting us from the actions of the grinders. The city was strung up to explode. Scott ordered the formation of the Ultra zord. Kilobyte seemed to be heading the taskforce so he reasoned that if we destroyed him we might be able to throw his plan to the curb.

When we got back to the garage Ziggy attempted to run however Fresno Bob came to the garage and told Ziggy that because the blue ranger had saved his life he was willing to drop all debts owed.

Ziggy settled in and unpacked his suitcase and returned all the fruit to the fruit bowl which while he was in his room Flynn scrubbed each piece of fruit not wanting to chance what may have been in his suitcase.

Ziggy came down and sat next to me, "So what is with your family?"

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"You both are so high strung and tense." Ziggy exclaimed

I threw a pillow at Ziggy and stalked off to work on my car for a while before turning in for the night

RPM

I bolted upright in bed and grabbed my watch noticing that it was only a little past midnight. I should still be asleep. I had had a dream unlike all my others. Most dreams and nightmares I had had were either nonsensical dreams like most people had or regressed memories about my capture in the palace. This was a dream about the future.

The sun was shining and I was waking up at first I had been confused why I had slept all night. But then I felt really good and almost relaxed. I went down with a spring in my step and got a drink from the fridge while have a nice conversation with Flynn and Summer. It was Flynn who freaked out first and Summer screamed like a little girl when she noticed my hand. I looked down to see a completely robotic hand.

I held my hand up to my face in the moonlight and flexed it back and forth it was flesh covered and it responded the way it should. I was in control of my body. I knew though that sleep was gone for the night so I got dressed and made my bed.

I went downstairs but as I walked to the stairs I noticed that Gem and Gemma's room was empty and their door wide open. I went to fridge upon going downstairs but hesitated as I looked at my hand. I couldn't let fear guide me so I opened the door and hastily took out the pitcher of juice.

I sat on the couch and read a book. I saw the twins sneak back in and then slip into the lab. They seemed happy about something and I figured they were up to some strange project so I just shrugged it off.

Summer came down at six and looked me over, "Did you get up earlier than normal?"

I looked at Summer and shrugged before looking back at my book.

"You had more nightmares didn't you?" Summer asked frowning

"This wasn't about Drake though." I said easing her mind.

Gem and Gemma came running out of the lab, "Summer, Lacy come to the lab!"

They then ran upstairs to wake up Scott, Ziggy and Flynn. Summer and I walked into the lab to hear the alarms blaring. As soon as everyone was in the lab Dr. K sent us out to the city. Venjix wasn't wasting anytime this morning and I felt bad for the team members who still needed sleep.

I realized just how bad of a day it was going to be when the attack bot accompanying Drake turned out to be Venjix in the machine for lack of better terms. I hissed in anger wanting to take out all my frustration and blame on him but knowing that being Venjix himself his powers would supersede everything we had fought before.

I decided to make the best of this situation "You may be in a new body but you are still going down just like the other times!"

Venjix cackled, "Foolish rangers, you can talk but I become strong with every second that I am in this body." Venjix paused and then addressed Crunch and Drake, "Destroy them!"

Drake came charging at me along with a stream of grinders. I started wasting the grinders with little effort. I looked at Drake as he waited his turn and I noticed again that there was no feeling in his eyes. They were cold and mechanical. I shivered; Venjix was subduing everything that had made Drake human which included his ability to question orders. While I took care of the grinders Gem and Gemma came to keep Drake busy. I knew Gem and Gemma would do their best to try and rescue my brother so I fought a little easier but not too easy.

Once Flynn and I had finished the Grinders we went onto Venjix. I felt a little relieved that I was spared this battle to have to fight my brother. I soon regretted this as the attack bot that was guarding Venjix could control our weapons and the swallow the blast before regurgitating it at us tenfold.

As I stood up I felt a searing pain run through my head and it caused me to collapse for a few seconds. Flynn looked at me but I was afraid to show any weakness to Flynn, I didn't need to have the team pitying me during this battle so I fought through it and stood up to return to the battle.

The attack bot had Ziggy, Scott and Summer on the ground so I surprise attacked the bot giving a brief reprieve to them. However, soon after we totally blasted the bot with our weapons it sent our energy back at us which demorphed us. We fell back to the garage with loud complaints about being bested by an attack bot that looked like a clown.

I fought the pounding in my head and managed to hold it together but the others seemed to be screaming all the time or at least talking very loudly about how we were able to be demorphed so easily. I rested my arms on a computer monitor in the lab and tried to channel out all the loud noises.

Dr. K wasn't any quieter than the rest of the rangers. She went on to tell us that the attack bot had the ability to harness and manipulate our bio fields. I was in too much pain to go through everything that she said so I just processed the relevant parts. I thought I was holding it together pretty well until she spoke straight at me.

"Ranger Green you aren't looking too good right now." She stood up and got in my face.

I lifted my head and swallowed which seemed to relieve some of the pain for a few seconds, "I am fine."

"It could be the Venjix virus. We should do a scan to check you out." Dr. K started to leave her desk.

"I said I am fine, will you leave it at that. I don't need another scan right now. We need to get this bot off the street before it becomes any stronger!" I forced the words out before spinning on my heels and left the lab. If I was alone I wouldn't have to worry about noise control.

I had maybe only gone a couple of blocks towards the largest of Corinth's parks when Flynn came running up behind me. "Lacy I know we have gone over this a lot lately. It hurts to see you stuck in brooding moods. I want the sweet and not so volatile Lacy back."

"Tell that to the virus that has spread through my body." I shook my head as I kept on walking

"I don't care about the virus. The virus has not changed your mind, except for the one time you lost control but it hasn't changed how you think. The mind in your head is the same it was the day I met you." Flynn begged, "Please come back and have the scan done."

"I just need to be alone right now Flynn. I am sure I am fine. I just have a headache and I can't stand everyone screaming or the beeping in the lab." I tried to get Flynn off of my back.

"well come back and have the scan and if it isn't something related to the virus maybe Dr. K has something you can take to help the pain." Flynn begged me again, "If not I have a tension relief blend of smoothie that may help."

I smiled, "Alright I will come back and get the scan done but you need to keep everyone quiet."

"I can do that!" Flynn smiled and he patted me on the back

We had walked about a quarter of a block back to the garage when we were hit by a blast that was released by the attack bot. we morphed and faced off with the bot after agreeing that my scan could wait. The others showed up as we blasted it with our blaster and I ordered them to each blast the bot with their weapons as it returned fire on Flynn and I.

Surprisingly as their blast hit the attack bot as it blasted Flynn and I we were thrown back but not demorphed. At first I thought we had managed to blow it up but then it grew and I groaned; it could never be easy.

We called our zords even though Scott ordered me back to the lab for my scan. I couldn't leave the others. My scan had waited this long it could wait until we had blasted the revived bot back out of existence. We formed our megazord as it blasted the others from their cockpits.

I shook my head and looked back down at Scott. "My scan can wait. This bot cannot." Evidently Dr. K agreed because she had an upgraded code for us to use against the bot. we used it and managed to get rid of the bot without any further incident.

As I walked back to the lab with the other rangers I had to join in the laughter even though my head was still throbbing. It felt good to laugh for a little bit though.

"Your energy array must not have been very good for that bot!" Ziggy said loudly to which Flynn tried to quiet him down a few decibels.

Summer nodded, "The attack bot had a last meal that gave it severe indigestion."

"I have to admit that was clever of Dr. K!" Gem and Gemma each crowed

I looked at Gem and Gemma, "what were you doing out late last night?"

"Oh we couldn't…" Gemma started

"Sleep! So we went out to the…" Gem continued

"Wastelands to work on a project!" Gemma finished

Gem and Gemma then said together, "You will see in a little bit if our project had any results."

Our walk was over just a little too soon and I groaned as I walked right into the lab and onto the examination table. I dreaded the results that I was sure were soon to follow.

Dr. K picked up her scanner and I closed my eyes not wanting to see the reports as they appeared on the screens. I didn't open them again until I heard Summer bite back sorrowfully at the results. I was at fifty one percent.

I cringed at that number. Fifty percent had been the evil number for so long. Everything that it stood for had held the meaning end game in my head. "So it is over I guess?"

Dr. K shook her head, "it isn't over until it is over. Venjix could activate you any day however there is a chance."

"I don't like the thought that I could be taken over." I sighed as I swung my legs off the table and sat up.

"I have been working on an antidote. If you can hang on a few more days I will have try to have it ready." Dr. K held up a green vial and a special injector.

"Give it to me now and we will know if it works without the risk of me going crazy on you." I begged as I looked at the antidote.

"I can't do that. I have no idea what it would do to you. It could make you better or it could kill you. I can't willingly kill you before it hasn't been tested." Dr. K explained, "If you can hold on a few days I will have it fine-tuned and tested."

I walked over and picked the vial up and seriously thought about injecting myself right then and there. At least if I died it would be on my own terms but Summer and Flynn both put their hands on me and I set it down. I would wait as long as I could.


	14. Chapter 14

I sat on the cliff looking at the sunset running my fingers through Drake's hair. Venjix was gone and our memories were gone for good although every now and then Drake had what he considered intuition about our past. We were on our own in the wastelands looking for the hope of a new tomorrow. The cybernetic implants in Drake's eyes had failed about ninety percent and I was definitely weaker than I had been a month before.

Drake could see shadows and light impressions but that was all. He requested that we sit on this cliff and watch the sun set. He got great enjoyment as the light played with the sunrises and sunsets because he could see the light change in this dark shadowy world. He also enjoyed and told me it seemed very familiar when I ran my fingers through his hair. He said the tactile touch help reassure his body that everything was still alright.

I had expressed sadness about his eyesight failing when we first found out that it would happen. He had told me that he was more than alright with it and that he had no regrets going back into a sightless world as long as I would never leave him alone again. He said the thought of going blind again would actually be a relief as the seeing world confused his mind and having this sense that I took for granted had often overwhelmed him at times. He just had never known why, he had thought it was a glitch in his programing. He had told me that he also wouldn't forget this precious time either because now he truly knew what colors looked like and he knew what I looked like, not just how I had felt which is how he remembered me in the memory shards that had made it through the virus.

I had had a hard time accepting all the changes in my life and that I had been unconscious during much of the final battle but for the first time as I watched this sunset I really gave my mind permission to wander to the events that had happened.

RPM

I had just found out about the vaccine that Dr. K had been working on. I knew I had been on borrowed time but it hadn't really hit home until Corporal Hicks turned out to be a hybrid at fifty three percent that was activated ahead of the game. Scott told us he had attempted to assassinate the Colonel.

With this step up in the game Scott had gotten permission to take the battle the Venjix. Gem and Gemma had located the palace with their special project that they had worked on the night before.

We were on our way to the staging grounds when Venjix released a magnetic wave that temporarily disrupted all our cars. Those seconds as my car came to a halting stop were some of the scariest I had ever experienced because unlike the time when Venjix had taken control of my mind I was completely aware as his voice and his orders began to issue through my head. I was somehow able to resist the droning going through my head.

I knew that keeping my mind on the mission was the only way to avoid giving into the strong will of Venjix. I kept my head focused and followed Scott's lead in everything, I was not even going to try and contradict because Venjix wanted me to question ranks and turn the others against each other.

We saw all the other hybrids walking mindlessly through the city. Venjix gave his orders to all his followers and to anyone who wasn't a hybrid he ordered them to surrender peacefully.

My face twisted up in pain and Summer looked at me. "Lacy are you alright?"

I struggled to talk, it was easier to move my body than talk, "He is in my head but I am still here for now."

Scott shook his head at Venjix's orders and Flynn became panicked. I had never seen Flynn tear off in such a manner but I knew he had his reasons. Ziggy worried about Dr. K but Scott grabbed his arm and ordered him to hold still.

We ran around the corner and ran into the mother of all attack bots. It was not the prettiest thing I ever saw. Venjix had had some inventions that were real winners but this was the winner of the only a demonic computer virus could love category. I could pick out a few different bots that had obviously had their best attributes or worst depending on who you asked assigned to this bot.

The others went to morph but I found it was too hard to resist Venjix while going through the stance needed to morph. I let myself collapse to the ground and held myself there until I could regain motor control of my body. I watched the others struggle to fight and my mind drifted to the vaccine. I knew I had to take the risk of going after the vaccine. I acknowledged that I could die but dying would be better than killing my friends when I lost control. I would only be able to fight my mind for so long.

I bolted back to my car not even thinking about whether it would start or not. When I turned my key I then thought about what I would do if it didn't start. Luckily it came to roaring life and I drove it like a drunk mad man across town. Every second Venjix was getting closer to controlling me.

I also soon found that it was harder to fight when I was closer in proximity to Venjix. I began to stumble and fade in and out of consciousness once I arrived at the garage and found Venjix in the middle of destroying the lab. I know I nearly lost myself as he addressed me but I think I managed to fight it long enough that he evidently left me for dead. I don't remember much but I know one moment I was standing in front of Venjix and the next I was rolling over on the floor feeling like a lead weight was laying on my chest.

I crawled along the floor till I reached the table with the vaccine on it. I was amazed that all Venjix did to the lab the liquid that could save my life was still untouched. I fumbled around for the injector and once it was in my hand I struggled to inject it into my hand. The vaccine burned as it traveled through my veins.

The effects were almost immediate. My head cleared and I could think clearly. I uttered my first words since telling Summer that Venjix was in my head. "Doc you are a genius!" I grabbed another vial and ran out of the lab before any troops could come and take my body away.

I followed a patrol of grinders as they traveled through the city. I hoped that they would take me to where my brother was. I got lucky when I found Drake however I groaned when I saw some grinders pushing Flynn and Dr. K into a building. Drake guarded the entrance until his entire patrol was inside as if he was expecting to be attacked. I opened a channel on my morpher, "Scott, Summer where are you?"

Scott answered me, "We are in what is left of the Industrial park." He seemed to bite back tears before continuing, "We just lost Gem and Gemma."

"Lost? What do you mean lost?" I said speaking into my morpher while watching to make sure I didn't attract attention.

Summer must have taken Scott's morpher because over Scott's channel came the hushed answer that they were gone.

I digested what I had been told but quickly responded, "I am sorry but we don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves."

"What is up with your attitude we just lost the twins!" Ziggy said snatching the morpher away. "You can't have a heart if you don't care that Gem and Gemma are gone. I still can't believe it!"

I put my head down, "You better believe it. Dr. K and Flynn are about to be next."

Scott must have taken his morpher back because he practically yelled at me with the next statement, "Where are you!"

"I am about three blocks south of the garage at a transport depot." I responded as I peeked around a corner to see Dr. K and Flynn get loaded into a cargo truck. I ducked back into my hiding place as Kilobyte came marching into the depot. He began to say things about saying goodbye and that Drake would be the one leaving. I poked my head back around the corner in time to see his laser finger attachment disappear which was followed by a fight in front of the cargo truck.

I watched but once I saw that Drake didn't have the upper hand in the fight I morphed and jumped in, "How about two hybrids?" I asked as I ran in in response of his telling Drake that one hybrid would never be a match for him.

I fought Kilobyte as Drake lay on the ground confused about what was happening to him. Kilobyte knocked me around and I hardly noticed that the vaccine slipped out of my belt. I was knocked back to Drake and I knelt in front of him.

"Still protecting your brother even though he has tried to kill you multiple times?" Kilobyte asked me.

I reached for the vaccine but that was when I realized that it wasn't at my side where I had secured it. "Some things never change!" I said as I stood up amending my plan. I heard Drake stand up behind me. And grab my arm. I tried to block her but he took my weapon and aimed it at Kilobyte while hiding behind me.

Kilobyte cackled, "She comes to save you and in return you use him as a shield. What a dysfunctional family!"

Dr. K ran from behind the truck and I smiled behind my helmet that she had gotten free. I then saw Flynn come out from behind Kilobyte and kick him in the ankles as he slid across the floor. He then called out to me and threw the vaccine at me. I took that moment to put Drake in front of me and grab the injector as it flew through the air. In one swift motion I pressed it down on my brother's arm and winced as he screamed in pain as the substance burned him as it had burned me.

At the last minute I pulled away as Drake fell to the ground and activated my shield. I struggled to hold it for the maximum length of time but in the end my shield failed and I felt myself go flying through the air as my mind shut down. My last thoughts were of pain overwhelming my body as the feedback demorphed me.

My next thought came as I pulled off a pair of headphone which were playing an awful rendition of my watch tune on a repeating loop. I struggled to sit up but my body felt stiff and unreactive. I got a new wind as I heard my brother's voice from Dr. K's control center. He sounded scared so I ran to the room to find him on the screen.

I looked at Dr. K, "where is he?"

Dr. K looked at me, "he is at the control tower and it is collapsing."

"I will go get him out of there!" I took off running but I heard a no in protest from behind me.

I pulled my car out of the garage and drove off towards the access shaft of the control tower at the fastest possible speed. As I drove I looked up at the tower to see it hanging by one connector. I knew I had to act even faster so I pushed my car to a faster speed and braced myself as I swerved around corners and took out debris that littered the road.

As I drove and then ran when I could drive no further my only thought was on saving my brother. Luckily the service elevator was working and I was able to take it almost all the way to the top before I had to scale through the damaged tunnels. I got into control just as the tower began to shake and wobble. I found Crunch and Drake fighting. I also heard that the reason for the more unstable being was that Gem and Gemma were back and they had shot out the last connector just seconds after I exited it.

I kicked Crunch as the tower began to fall. I grabbed Drake and dragged him to an escape hatch where we grabbed a parachute and jumped out into the air. Once we had cleared the tower I released the parachute and let us drift around while the tower fell to the ground.

Drake held onto me so I couldn't immediately reach for my morpher when Dr. K began to look for me urgently. Drake was able to unstrap it from my wrist and hold it to me. I smiled and replied, "We are alright, just enjoying the view. It is going to be a perfect day tomorrow!"

The bittersweet came shortly after as everything settled into a new normal. Gem and Gemma were recruited into Eagle squad under Scott and soldiers began to spread out around the city to find what might be left in the area immediately around Corinth and to secure Venjix's palace.

Scott and Summer started going through some difficult times and Drake and I decided to head out into the wastelands. Flynn was originally going to come with us however his Dad invited him to come back to work with him. Flynn was unable to turn down that offer.

Drake and I had just finished loading my car when Dr. K approached us with a scanner, "I need to scan you two to make sure your mechanical parts are going to break down with little problem to your health before you go. I shrugged and let the scan proceed. I was informed that I was going to be fine although I may experience periods of crippling weakness and my muscles reasserted themselves. Drake was told that his implants in his eyes were holding but there was no way of knowing for how long he would be able to see.

I drove out of the city and looked at my brother. We had gone maybe five miles when we came to some flowers that were already growing. It was then that I really knew it was safe to let loose and that there really was a brighter future waiting for us.

RPM

Drake shook me out of my reverie, "The sun has set I see only complete darkness now. We should get into the car."

I nodded and guided him to the car. It was dangerous at night out here in the unexplored part of the wastelands. During the day people were timid and afraid you could approach them if you had food. At night is was another story Altogether they became savage and wild fighting for whatever they could find. The only safe place was in our car so we would climb in and lock the doors and then I would help Drake over into the backseat. Once back there I would unfold the blankets and we would tuck in for the night. People usually didn't bother with a locked car; they just wanted to get at whatever was easiest.

As we bundled down it was Drakes turn to soothe me. He would run his fingers though my hair to help me relax. I rolled over to face him even though I knew he couldn't see me anymore. "I think I am ready to hear what happened to you while I was unconscious during the last battle."

"There isn't much to tell Lacy." Drake whispered as he searched for a strand of my hair.

"I need to know what happened." I whispered back.

Alright." Drake paused before beginning with a faraway sounding voice "I was wreathing in pain after you had injected me. My first clear thought came to me since my capture after my first betrayal. I saw you lying on the floor so I crawled to you and I didn't leave your side as Scott, Ziggy, and Summer finished Kilobyte. I didn't leave your side even while they all carried you to the garage."

I lay still and listen to the story. I let the words wrap around me as if I had been experiencing them first hand.

"Flynn, Scott and Ziggy carried you back to the garage while Summer helped me walk. The vaccine cause so much pain at first. Dr. K thinks it hurt me more because I was over eighty percent cybernetic. I stood beside you as Dr. K hooked you up to her computers and then eventually plugged you into those headphones. I never wanted to leave you but the others persuaded me that you would be fine and that I was the only one who could walk right up to Venjix and double cross him." Drake frowned and sighed

"Dr. K uploaded a virus into my systems, one that was harmless to me but would turn Venjix against himself. Every time he tried to hurt his enemies he just hurt himself." I was also able to recover all the information on your ranger bio-fields which Dr. K used to bring Gem and Gemma back."

"Just minutes before you came to rescue me Crunch came in and accused me of not being Drake anymore. I had to tell him that I had never been who he thought I was." Drake finished retelling what had happened.

"Well, I am glad you were able to stand up to Venjix. I would love you either way but I know the only reason we all survived was because you did what you did." I mumbled as I rolled over again

As I drifted off I heard Drake whisper, "The one thing I wish I could wipe from my brain is the image of Venjix. I would be much happier if he wasn't the one thing I was forced to see with my eyes the most."


	15. Chapter 15

RPM

I woke up and blinked my eyes at the sun as it shone through the windshield. I looked at Drake and smiled as I sat up. We both had been sleeping longer and longer. Today was the first day time that we had both been out all night. It felt relaxing to know that we both had gotten full nights rest.

Drake sat up and looked towards the light, "what time is it?"

I flipped my wrist around, "It is close to six and by the looks of it the sun has been up for a while."

"I guess our time of watching the sunrise is over with" Drake frowned. The bright lights of the sun tended to give him headaches but he really enjoyed the light tones as the sun played with the atmosphere as it rose and set.

I handed Drake his sunglasses before helping him up out of our makeshift bed. He then climbed out of the car and felt his way to the trunk where he counted the supplies we had left. I had noticed the evening before that our supplies seemed to be running low as we fed a very timid family that we had found in the rock face just to our north.

Drake called to me as I got changed, "We should probably start heading back to Corinth or at least one of the supply stockades that we found. We have about enough rations for a week as long as we don't share it."

I acknowledged Drake. I had a secret that Drake didn't know yet but we had already been backtracking back towards Corinth. At this point in time were maybe three days from Corinth's outer limits. I was missing Flynn but I wanted to also maximize our time here in the wastelands. So we had been slowly circling in closer to Corinth. "Section out what we will need for ourselves for about three days and then put the rest in the donation bucket. We are only about three days from Corinth if my map is right."

I knew Drake could tell what was what because I had dented different packages different ways so that he could tell what was what by feeling the packaging. He had thought I was strange when I had done this because he had still been able to see colors and shapes but I had quickly reasoned with him that I had no way of writing brail and I didn't know if I still knew how to read brail.

I had just started to climb out of the car when I saw a flash of dull colored rags come running across the open ground. I stood my ground, not many people yet believed it was safe to come out during the day. The person ran for Drake but caught him off guard and they both toppled over. I ran to assist them and I recognized the person as the older child of the family we had fed the day before.

"You have to help me, some raiders came and have hurt my parents because they wanted our food." The child who was probably about twelve cried.

I sucked in a deep breath and grabbed the emergency kit I carried in the trunk. Most people didn't want aide so we hadn't use many of the supplies in it. They were skeptical at best that it really was safe out. And those that did trust were quickly scared into submission by groups of raiders who raided the more timid family groups for what little they had.

I ran after the boy before stopping briefly, "Drake get in the car and lock the doors. The raiders could still be around and if they are desperate I don't want to take any chances." After I saw that Drake was doing what I had asked I turned to follow the boy into the hills. I braced myself for this to be a trap but I was not expecting what I did find.

I sucked in my breath and proceeded carefully into the outcropping. I stopped as I found the entire hiding place of this small family destroyed. Bodies lay strew across the ground. I turned to the boy, "when did this happen?"

"During the night, it happened when the raiders come when the moon is gone." The boy sobbed as he knelt by an older woman who he addressed as Grandmother.

I asked him for identification of each member of his family. "who are each of these people? Is everyone accounted for?"

The boy wandered around, "this is Papa and this is mother and that is grandmother." The boy pointed at one other person who was dressed differently, "That is one of the raiders, Papa threw a rock at his head before he was taken out by the others." He then looked wildly about, "My sister isn't here she is sickly and won't survive long out of our caves!"

"what is your sister's name?" I asked.

"Her name is Julia." The boy replied sadly

I started calling to Julia to see if she had crawled into a really good hiding place, if Julia was the child I had seen the day before she had probably lived most of her life here in this rock face. "stopped calling her name after a few tries and stood silently listening

A muffled reply came crying out from under the parents so I rolled them over to find a young girl of maybe four laying under them. I picked Julia up and felt her head, she was extremely thin and her temperature seemed warm. I then carried her to her brother and as I did I spotted a shovel, the only thing left untouched by the raiders was a shovel and a nice one as well meant for digging in this harder terrain.

I started to look for softer ground where I could bury the four bodies but the boy pointed to a section of ground, "Grandfather is buried there."

I nodded and set about digging a space big enough for the three members of the family, they took priority over the dead raider. As it got closer to noon time I stopped digging and took a break I envied at that time for my robotic strength and endurance. I called the boy who I had learned was called Travis, "Travis I need you to run back to my car and get my brother. Tell him that he can trust you by saying the watch that Grandfather gave us. tell him to bring enough rations for four people." I then paused, "Travis when you bring him back here you need to hold his hand and tell him whenever anything is in your way, he can't see."

Travis nodded before darting off down the path and I continued digging the graves.

Drake and Travis came back shortly with the food and I had Travis help him prepare the food while I kept digging. I spent all day digging and moving the bodies of Travis and Julia's family into the grave. The sun was beginning to set when I finally had the grave filled in and Julia placed some stones in a decorative pattern on the graves.

Drake looked up at the sky, "the sun is almost down we had better get back to the car."

I nodded before looking at Travis, "gather anything that is left of value to you and your sister, you will not be staying here."

Drake looked at me with a questioning expression, "It isn't safe for them; we will take them with us."

I picked up Julia and carried her while Travis took Drake's hand and led him back down the mountain. When we got to the car I threw our belongings into the trunk and then squeezed into the backseat with the two kids between us.

In the morning as soon as the sun had risen we rose and left the area. Julia sobbed because as I had guessed this had been the only home she really knew.

Travis looked at me questioningly, "where are you taking us?"

Drake placed a hand on his shoulder, "Did your parents ever tell you about the domed city of Corinth?"

Travis nodded his head, "We were going to go there but we never could find it. Grandfather said it was a joke to get us to leave our cities."

I laughed, "It is no joke it is real, it was just really hard to find it. Venjix made it nearly impossible to get there."

Travis looked at me, "Dad was whispering about something that you said after you left the other night, is it true that Venjix is gone?"

Drake nodded, "it is Travis and you will be safe in Corinth, you won't have to worry about any more raiders who don't want to believe that."

RPM

I drove the car into the garage and parked it. I saw Scott's car sitting in its place and Summer's bike sitting near the door. As I opened the door I saw Summer come running down the stairs yelling at Scott who was standing in the doorway. When I had left I knew they were having problems but this looked to be beyond problems.

Summer stopped and looked at Drake and I with the two children next to us and she stopped yelling at Scott but still stormed down the stairs.

Summer knelt in front of the children and smiled like her old self, "who do we have here?"

I knelt down as well and pointed to the children, "this is Travis and Julia and they are looking forward to attending Dr. K's and Ziggy's school."

Summer smiled, "you are going to love the school, our friend Ziggy teaches shadow puppets and other really neat things and our friend Dr. K teaches you some other really cool subjects."

"Let's get them settled in and then I think we need to talk." I replied to Summer while she went to the kitchen and made the two of them sandwiches and tall glasses of cold juice.

Drake sat with the children while they ate their food which was very new and strange for them and I went outside with Summer.

"Scott goes off on these long missions with Eagle squadron but when he comes back he expects me to be there for him. I never know when he is going to return. I still really like Scott as a friend but I feel so tied down. I have been playing around with the idea of going with you when you came back but if I stay with Scott that won't happen." Summer said with a sour look on her face.

"well we will be in town for a few weeks, why don't you think about it. I will however be staying with Flynn." I said to Summer point blankly. I had discussed it with Drake and he was going to stay at the Garage while I went to stay with Flynn during our stay in Corinth but that I would spend the days at the garage with him.

RPM

I walked into the garage and looked around. Drake nor Summer were anywhere to be found. Scott had left the day before for another mission. Neither of them answered my calls for them and it concerned me slightly but I was sure that both of them had been safe. Summer had taken to helping Drake when I left in the evenings to be with Flynn.

I ended up walking over to the school where I checked on Julia and Travis. They were settling in and figuring things out in their new world. Travis was extremely protective over Julia and I wondered if things were the other way around if Drake would have been as protective of me as I was of him.

Dr. K stood next to me, "Those two children are bright. They are learning a lot quicker than the other children that have come in from the wastelands."

"I think their family was pretty close. They lived in a small nuclear family group and not a pack of families all moving together that fought over what they had or found." I nodded

"that much is clear, Travis is a bit timid when it comes to standing up to his peers but it has only been a little over a week." Dr. K evaluated the situation, "what did you say happened to their family?"

I shook my head, "raiders came and ravaged their home."

"Lacy!" Drake and Summer came walking into the school. Drake called out to me as Summer told him that I was standing there. "We were just at the garage looking for you but figured you would probably come here if you weren't too worried about me."

I smiled and laughed at my brother's intuition.

"Summer had a great idea last night after you left so we went to check it out this morning." Drake replied

Summer shook her head, "it was all Drake's idea; he wanted to know if there might be a way to do a reverse look up about your pasts."

I furrowed my brow, "what do you mean?"

"You always referred to not being able to find out who you were before because it was difficult when Corinth was on a closed circuit." Drake replied, "Well now that Corinth is back on the main web we were able to look through old documents. Summer read articles to me and we looked at people by facial features and unique attributes."

"what do you mean by unique attributes?" I asked my brother

Summer laughed and brushed her fingers through Drake's hand which I didn't miss the return gesture from Drake, "Well, fir starters you are a brother and sister that are fiercely protective of each other and not many siblings stick together in cases where one has a disability." Summer began to list off, "then there is your stamina and speed, Drake feels you must have been a runner before because even with your mechanical parts nearly gone you are still faster than most people your size."

I nodded not able to deny this even though it didn't feel that way to me because I wasn't used to the limitations that were on me. "Did you find anything?"

Summer nodded her head and held out a news article. Drake pulled out a copy that was in Braille. I took the one in print and glanced over it before looking at Dr. K, "Guess who was in Corinth city just before the initial attack?"

Dr. K read over the article and then looked at the picture which was of me running. There wasn't a name but there was some other information that we could use. Apparently the race I was running in was a Triathlon which raised money for people suffering from different types of seeing impairments. The caption below the picture read

"_The young lady pictured above was running in support of her Brother who was cheering her on from the crowds and her parents who were at home in Rockton City."_

"Rockton city?" I tilted my head to the side.

Summer nodded, "yes Rockton was just outside Corinth's city limits."

Ziggy wandered over, "Rockton that is the only city that was able to evacuate about ninety eight percent of their population to Corinth. It was a small city, but most of Rockton's citizens live in this area of the dome."

I looked up at the apartment buildings that surrounded the school and the garage and realized that my parents could be in any of those apartments. But of course they wouldn't have been able to see me because they were seeing impaired like Drake.

Dr. K took the paper back again, "I can get you a list of all the runners who were registered in that race."

I smiled, "You could do that for us?"

"Yes I can." Dr. K said with a nod of her head as she disappeared into her computer lab that she had built at the school.

"Ziggy can you stay with Drake?" Drake was about the protest but then I added, "maybe take him over to see Travis and Julia."

"Yes I can do that." Ziggy nodded as he took Drake's hand

"Summer can I have a word with you?" I asked as I walked towards the door to the street.

Summer followed me and as soon as I was outside I unleashed on her, "You haven't even made it official with Scott and you are making moves on my brother. I love you like a best friend Summer but I don't want you using my brother just because you are in a rough patch with Scott."

Summer shook her head, "I broke it off with Scott before he left. I did it just before he left for his mission because I didn't want to deal with the drama. He handled it pretty well because apparently he has been getting close with Gemma. Also I am not using Drake; I care for him as much if not more than I care for you." Summer paused, "I also worry about the both of you, I think Drake needs someone to stand by him so that you can be with Flynn. I know you want to take your relationship to the next level but you have promised never to leave Drake alone. I promise to stand by your brother."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at Summer from top to bottom, "If I hear that you hurt him in any way, I know a perfect burial site where no one will ever find you is that clear?"

"Crystal!" Summer chirped

I shook my head as I walked back into the school. I was getting too soft with allowing my best friend the right to date my brother. But I knew she was right, I wouldn't be able to move on with my relationship with Flynn if I didn't let someone into Drake's life and at least with Summer I would have eyes and ears all over the two of them.

Life was looking good, a perfect future was far off but I had Flynn and Drake was going to have Summer. We weren't done traveling in the wastelands not by a long shot. We also had a lead on who we used to be and where our family was. There would indeed be better tomorrow's.


End file.
